title: Somatosensory pleasure circuit: from skin to brain and back.
abstract: The skin senses serve a discriminative function, allowing us to manipulate objects and detect touch and temperature, and an affective/emotional function, manifested as itch or pain when the skin is damaged. Two different classes of nerve fibre mediate these dissociable aspects of cutaneous somatosensation: (i) myelinated A-beta and A-delta afferents that provide rapid information about the location and physical characteristics of skin contact; and (ii) unmyelinated, slow-conducting C-fibre afferents that are typically associated with coding the emotional properties of pain and itch. However, recent research has identified a third class of C-fibre afferents that code for the pleasurable properties of touch - c-tactile afferents or CTs. Clinical application of treatments that target pleasant, CT-mediated touch (such as massage therapy) could, in the future, provide a complementary, non-pharmacological means of treating both the physical and psychological aspects of chronic skin conditions such as itch and eczema.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Donna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Lloyd
authors.forename: Francis P
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: McGlone
authors.forename: Gil
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yosipovitch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006120:Grooming / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008405:Massage; D036421:Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated / Q000502:physiology; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D057181:Pleasure / Q000502:physiology; D011537:Pruritus / Q000503:physiopathology; D012867:Skin / Q000294:innervation*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: c-tactile fibres; itch; massage therapy; pain; pleasant touch