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Scratching beneath the surface of itch, touch and pain

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Air date: Monday, October 27, 2014, 12:00:00 PM
Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local
Views: Total views: 161 (32 Live, 129 On-demand)
Category: Neuroscience
Runtime: 00:53:13
Description: Neuroscience Seminar Series

Dr. Bautista lab’s somatosensory system enables numerous behaviors fundamental to human existence, allowing us to eat, communicate and survive. Acute pain is as a warning signal that alerts us to noxious mechanical, chemical and thermal stimuli, which are potentially tissue damaging. During inflammation or injury, we experience a heightened sensitivity to touch that encourages us to protect the injured site. Despite this essential protective function, pain can outlast its usefulness and become chronic. Numerous pathophysiological conditions result in the chronic dysregulation of mechanosensory signaling, leading to pain triggered by light touch (allodynia), as well as enhanced sensitivity to noxious mechanical stimuli.

Light-touch receptors, which mediate discriminative touch, enables fine tactile acuity that allows us to manipulate objects with high precision. As humans, we depend on this skill for everyday tasks that range from eating with utensils to texting. Discriminative touch is also central to social interactions such as mating, maternal bonding and successful child rearing. To understand the senses of touch and pain, we must unravel peripheral mechanisms that encode tactile stimuli and discover how the brain interprets these signals to dictate behavior. The transduction of a physical force on the skin into an electrical signal is the first step in the encoding of tactile stimuli. Dr. Bautista’s group uses molecular biology and cellular physiology to discover the ransduction molecules that underlie touch.
NLM Title: Scratching beneath the surface of itch, touch, and pain / Diana Bautista.
Author: Bautista, Diana.
National Institutes of Health (U.S.),
Publisher:
Abstract: (CIT): Neuroscience Seminar Series Dr. Bautista lab's somatosensory system enables numerous behaviors fundamental to human existence, allowing us to eat, communicate and survive. Acute pain is as a warning signal that alerts us to noxious mechanical, chemical and thermal stimuli, which are potentially tissue damaging. During inflammation or injury, we experience a heightened sensitivity to touch that encourages us to protect the injured site. Despite this essential protective function, pain can outlast its usefulness and become chronic. Numerous pathophysiological conditions result in the chronic dysregulation of mechanosensory signaling, leading to pain triggered by light touch (allodynia), as well as enhanced sensitivity to noxious mechanical stimuli. Light-touch receptors, which mediate discriminative touch, enables fine tactile acuity that allows us to manipulate objects with high precision. As humans, we depend on this skill for everyday tasks that range from eating with utensils to texting. Discriminative touch is also central to social interactions such as mating, maternal bonding and successful child rearing. To understand the senses of touch and pain, we must unravel peripheral mechanisms that encode tactile stimuli and discover how the brain interprets these signals to dictate behavior. The transduction of a physical force on the skin into an electrical signal is the first step in the encoding of tactile stimuli. Dr. Bautista"s group uses molecular biology and cellular physiology to discover the transduction molecules that underlie touch.
Subjects: Pain Perception--physiology
Pain--physiopathology
Pruritus--physiopathology
Signal Transduction
Touch Perception--physiology
Touch--physiology
Publication Types: Lecture
Webcast
NLM Classification: WR 282
NLM ID: 101645902
CIT Live ID: 14894
Permanent link: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=14894

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