Perceiving warmth requires input from a surprising source: cool receptors. The finding published in Neuron by neuroscientists at the MDC challenges the theory that dedicated neurons convey either warm or cool sensations to the brain.
A team of neuroscientists at Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) have made an unexpected discovery about the way mice perceive warming sensations. It’s counterintuitive: cooling receptors in the skin are critical for the perception of warmth.
The finding, recently published in the journal Neuron, challenges the predominant model of non-painful temperature perception, and provides clues about the way not just mice, but also humans, consciously detect warmth.
“When we grab a cup of coffee with our hands, and we can quickly feel its warmth, this is happening because not only neurons activated by warming are at play, but also neurons inactivated by it,” said Ricardo Paricio-Montesinos, co-first paper author and neuroscientist from the MDC. “Without the second type, our data from mice suggest that we would either need much longer to feel it or perhaps we wouldn’t even sense warming at all.”
Read the full press release at MDC.
Image credit: Lewin Lab, MDC.