After light touch to its nose, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans halts forward locomotion and initiates backing. Here we show that three classes of neurons (ASH, FLP, and OLQ) sense touch to the nose and hence are required for this avoidance response. ASH, FLP, and OLQ have sensory endings that contain axonemal cilia. Mutant animals that have defective ciliated sensory endings as well as lase...

INTRODUCTION Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been widely used to study brain function in humans and in animals, especially in rats. In view of the increasing number of transgenic mouse lines used in research, we developed a robust stimulation paradigm to study pain processing in mice [1]. Studies in rats using electrical forepaw stimulation have revealed that noxious-evoked act...

Thermotaxis is a sensory-motor behavior that guides animals toward a preferred temperature. This type of sensory navigation allows animals to avoid environments of noxious cold and heat, with the goal of remaining in physiologically suitable ambient temperatures. For ectotherms such as insects, thermotaxis behavior is the primary method of thermoregulation. Many invertebrates are vulnerable to ...

The cortical system underlying perceptual ability to localize tactile and noxious cutaneous stimuli in humans is still incompletely understood. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to transiently interfere with the function of the parietal cortex, at different times after the beginning of noxious or non-noxious mechanical stimulation of the hairy skin overlying the dorsal surface of ...

The role of transient receptor potential channel A1 (TRPA1) in noxious cold sensation remains unclear. Some data support the hypothesis that TRPA1 is a transducer of noxious cold whilst other data contest it. In this study we investigated the role of TRPA1 in cold detection in cutaneous nociceptors in vivo using complementary experimental approaches. We used noxious withdrawal reflex electromyo...

Theanine is a non-dietary amino acid linked to the modulation of synaptic transmission in the central nervous system, although the acute effects of theanine in vivo, particularly on nociceptive transmission in the trigeminal system, remain to be determined. The present study investigated whether acute intravenous theanine administration to rats attenuates the excitability of wide dynamic range ...