Navigating a sensorimotor loop.
Touch is an active process, but how do the body's somatic sensors influence its movement? In this issue of Neuron, Nguyen and Kleinfeld show that afferent activity from the whiskers on a rat's face trigger rapid and prolonged excitation of the motor neurons that drive movements of the same whiskers. Positive feedback through this sensorimotor loop may serve to optimize the interaction between sensors and stimuli.
Fanselow
Erika E
EE
Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
Connors
Barry W
BW
D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D004525:Efferent Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D005246:Feedback / Q000502:physiology; D008465:Mechanoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000502:physiology*