Coding and Plasticity in the Mammalian Thermosensory System.

ABSTRACT: Perception of the thermal environment begins with the activation of peripheral thermosensory neurons innervating the body surface. To understand how temperature is represented in vivo, we used genetically encoded calcium indicators to measure temperature-evoked responses in hundreds of neurons across the trigeminal ganglion. Our results show how warm, hot, and cold stimuli are represented by distinct population responses, uncover unique functional classes of thermosensory neurons mediating heat and cold sensing, and reveal the molecular logic for peripheral warmth sensing. Next, we examined how the peripheral somatosensory system is functionally reorganized to produce altered perception of the thermal environment after injury. We identify fundamental transformations in sensory coding, incl

SUBMITTER: Yarmolinsky DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5145739 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature