Spinal signalling of C-fiber mediated pleasant touch in humans.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31872799.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.51642 and PMC identifier 6964968.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
C-tactile afferents form a distinct channel that encodes pleasant tactile stimulation. Prevailing views indicate they project, as with other unmyelinated afferents, in lamina I-spinothalamic pathways. However, we found that spinothalamic ablation in humans, whilst profoundly impairing pain, temperature and itch, had no effect on pleasant touch perception. Only discriminative touch deficits were seen. These findings preclude privileged C-tactile-lamina I-spinothalamic projections and imply integrated hedonic and discriminative spinal processing from the body.
Medical subject headings
- Pleasure
- Pleasure-Pain Principle
- Touch
- Touch Perception