A distributed coding logic for thermosensation and inflammatory pain.

ABSTRACT: Somatosensory neurons encode detailed information about touch and temperature and are the peripheral drivers of pain^1,2. Here by combining functional imaging with multiplexed in situ hybridization³, we determined how heat and mechanical stimuli are encoded across neuronal classes and how inflammation transforms this representation to induce heat hypersensitivity, mechanical allodynia and continuing pain. Our data revealed that trigeminal neurons innervating the cheek exhibited complete segregation of responses to gentle touch and heat. By contrast, heat and noxious mechanical stimuli broadly activated nociceptor classes, including cell types proposed to trigger select percepts and behaviours^4-6. Injection of the inflammatory mediator prostaglandin E2 caused

SUBMITTER: Ghitani N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12222022 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature