In this issue of Neuron, Guo et al. (2014) optogenetically probe contributions of different cortical regions to tactile sensory perception, finding that somatosensory cortex is necessary for acquisition of sensory information and frontal cortex is necessary for planning motor output.

there are many commentaries on light in its role as the subject matter of illuminative philosophy. according to suhrawardi, light is a symbol of “consciousness” and “self-consciousness”. therefore “knowledge” is the pivot of suhrawardi’s philosophy. the fundamental issue addressed in this study is the evaluation of vision or intuition in the essential topic of illuminationist philosophy, that i...

Many people on the autism spectrum report having difficulties or differences in sensory perception. For example, in Temple Grandin’s famous book “Thinking In Pictures” she describes her sensory experiences the following: “From as far back as I can remember, I always hated to be hugged. I wanted to experience the good feeling of being hugged, but it was just too overwhelming. It was like a great...

Baroreceptor activity has been implicated in the modulation of pain. Sensory detection thresholds and pain ratings were measured in a group of 28 men during carotid baroreceptor manipulation with the PRES (phase-related external suction) neck suction technique. Brief, cardiac phase-related electrical impulses were delivered intracutaneously to the finger. The results indicate that minimum baror...

In recent years, cognitive neuroscientists have began to explore the process of how sensory information gains access to awareness. To further probe this process, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used while testing subjects with a paradigm known as the "attentional blink." In this paradigm, visually presented information sporadically fails to reach awareness. It was...

The paper on nerve conduction studies (NCS) and current perception thresholds (CPT) in workers assessed for hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) by Lander et al. [1] while informative contained several oversights about the CPT neurophysiological test that would bias any reader's interpretation of the findings. The standardized automated double-blind CPT evaluation provides a painless objective ne...

Effective interpersonal communication depends on the ability to perceive and interpret nonverbal emotional expressions from multiple sensory modalities. Current theoretical models propose that visual and auditory emotion perception involves a network of brain regions including the primary sensory cortices, the superior temporal sulcus (STS), and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). However, relatively l...

A recent experimental study suggests that blind individuals may compensate for their lack of vision with better-than-normal hearing. This provides support for a view dating back to 18th century philosophers, but the data raise as many problems as they solve.

Ethosuximide is a medication used to treat seizure disorders in humans, and we previously demonstrated that ethosuximide can delay age-related changes and extend the lifespan of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The mechanism of action of ethosuximide in lifespan extension is unknown, and elucidating how ethosuximide functions is important for defining endogenous processes that influence lif...

BACKGROUND The authors examined the effects of thermal stimulation on electrodermal activity (EDA) in patients with primary palmar hyperhidrosis (PPH). The authors hypothesised that temperature changes may induce abnormal sudomotor reactions because of simultaneous activation of sudomotor centres through thermal and emotional pathways, and compared patients before and after thoracoscopic sympat...