Cell: The role of a new neural pathway in the brain

Touch plays an important role

Social behavior requires complex sensory input, including multiple senses such as touch, vision, hearing, and smell

Physical contact touches are also important in social relationships, think of monkey grooming behavior, or appreciative pats on the back

Neurobiologists have determined that information obtained through touch is transmitted in the thalamus of the brain and becomes conscious in the cerebral cortex, but at the same time, it has been argued that the brain learns stimuli from our peers in another way, because pleasant sensations occur

In their study, they noted that neural pathways directly from the thalamus to the hypothalamus play an important role in processing touch information, using parathyroxine 2 neuropeptide (PTH2) as a neurotransmitter

In the future, their findings may help develop therapeutic drugs

"Studies have shown that tactile stimuli from homogeneous objects are processed in the brain differently than stimuli produced by inanimate objects

What happens to our brains when we are touched?

The researchers simulated social interaction

According to the hypothesis of this study, the uplink sensory pathway carrying social contact information travels from the thalamus to the hypothalamus without relay

As a first step, the researchers showed that neurons in a hitherto little-known region of the thalamus are selectively activated

The study found that these thalamic neurons promoted friendly social interaction between same-sex experimental rats, which involved direct, i.

After discovering neural pathways, they turned to molecular mechanisms

The researchers further demonstrated that experimental manipulation of the activity of the thalamic-hypothalamic neural pathway also determined the degree of

Oxytocin is a prosocial neuropeptide that promotes social interactions, including social contact in

Recent studies have shown that the paragonoid-like hormone neuropeptide (PTH2) senses the presence

In addition, PTH2 levels in these neurons decreased

This demonstrates that the PTH2 peptide neurotransmitter transmits important social-behavioral decision inputs from the thalamus to the preoptic region

"This finding may also be important for the treatment of mental illness in the future, as avoiding physical contact is an inherent part
of many diseases.
" If we know these neural pathways and mechanisms, we can better understand in the long run why avoiding physical contact develops and has the potential to stop these processes and have a beneficial effect on
the individual.

Of course, this is still a distant future, but as the research progresses, we have come closer to understanding our brains and how our bodies respond to touch, which areas of the brain are activated when we are touched," concludes Dobolyi, head of research at the Árpád ELTE Institute of Biology
, Department of Physiology and Neurobiology.

essay

A thalamo-preoptic pathway promotes social grooming in rodents