Itch: when pain feels good

• Autores: Stephani Sutherland
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3101, 2016, págs. 37-38
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Sutherland investigates the relationship between itch and pain. The sensation of itch, which shares many nervous pathways with pain, has long been a mystery. One reason is that it can be conjured up entirely by the brain. Just thinking about something tickly, or even watching someone else scratch, can set people off. Efforts to find out why this is, and why only scratching makes it stop, have led researchers to study how itch is processed in the skin, spinal cord and brain. In recent years they have begun piecing together a more complete story of what itch is for--and what to do when an itch can no longer be scratched.