Wired for Touch: The Neurons and Circuits of the Somatosensory System

Abstract 

Every time we step out into this noisy, bustling world, a multitude of perceptions are stamped onto circuits of our brain by way of our sensory systems. Among the five senses, touch stands out as one of the most complex and perhaps least well understood, affecting almost every aspect of our everyday lives, from the way we move, feel pain, and even how we socialize with one another. The goal of our research program is to systematically unravel its complexity by uncovering the organizational logic of sensory neurons and associated spinal cord circuits responsible for translating stimuli acting upon skin into the neural codes that underlie touch perception and tactile reflexes. To do so we employ an array of mouse genetic tools to visualize and functionally manipulate both sensory subtypes as well as their post-synaptic targets in the spinal cord dorsal horn. Ongoing work aims to understand how spinal cord touch circuits modulate motor function and how rehabilitation after spinal cord injury increases plasticity of spinal cord touch circuits to facilitate recovery. Other projects in the lab are also exploring the overlapping spinal cord circuits of pain and affective touch.