When it comes to feeling pain, touch or an itch, location matters
Credit: (L) Yolanda Leenders-Goulding; (R) Salk Institute. LA JOLLA--(December 10, 2020) When you touch a hot stove, your hand reflexively pulls away; if you miss a rung on a ladder, you instinctively catch yourself. Both motions take a fraction of a second and require no forethought. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute have mapped the physical organization of cells in the spinal cord that help mediate these and similar critical "sensorimotor reflexes." The new blueprint of this aspect of the sensorimotor system, described online in Neuron on November 11, 2020, could lead to a better un...
Source: eurekalert.org