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.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 321-324 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Experimental dermatology |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 1 2015 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- C-tactile fibres
- Itch
- Massage therapy
- Pain
- Pleasant touch
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology
- Dermatology