Neuroscience

Exploring the mechanisms behind swallowing

Sensory cells in the vagus nerve can detect and locate food in the esophagus. Their signals help transport the food onward to the stomach. Signal failure leads to swallowing disorders, say a team led by Carmen Birchmeier ...

Neuroscience

How the brain encodes warm and cool

Researchers from the Max Delbrück Center have found a region of the brain that is responsible for our perception of temperature when we touch things. The paper, which appears in Nature, reports the discovery of a "thermal ...

Neuroscience

Treating gut pain via a Nobel prize-winning receptor

Targeting a receptor responsible for our sense of touch and temperature, which researchers have now found to be present in our colon, could provide a new avenue for treating chronic pain associated with gastrointestinal disorders ...

Surgery

Silencing gut pain without pain killers

Surgically removing specific populations of sensory nerves that communicate between internal organs, such as the bladder and gut, and the brain, can silence pain responses, without impacting other functions in the body, new ...

Neuroscience

Neural pathway key to sensation of pleasant touch identified

Studying mice, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a neural circuit and a neuropeptide—a chemical messenger that carries signals between nerve cells—that transmit the sensation ...

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