Fluorescently stained murine dorsal root ganglion neurons in the skin (pain-sensing neurons in red, itch-sensing neurons in purple and yellow)XINZHONG DONG
Neuroscientists have long debated how itch and pain overlap in the nervous system. Although itch was once thought to arise from the same neurons that generate pain, later observations disputing this theory led many to believe these sensations had distinct neural circuits. In a study published today (February 22) in Neuron, researchers report that a subset of “itch-specific” nerve cells in the murine spinal cord are also involved in sensing pain, bringing the specificity theory into question.
“We were surprised that contrary to what the field believes, neurons [in the spinal cord] coded for both pain and itch sensations,” coauthor Shuhao Sun, a neuroscience graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, told The Scientist. “[This] means there can be some crosstalk between these two sensations in ...
