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I’m trying to understand some research about naked mole rats. Apparently they don’t feel pain.
Can anyone give me some background here? How is substance P manufactured by the body? In what cells is it made? How is it used to transmit the ‘pain’ signal?
I would have imagined that nerve cells relay a signal to the brain and that signal is interpreted as pain because it is received at a very specific location in the brain. Sounds like this model is overly simplified at best, and perhaps totally wrong. What’s the correct model here?
There’s also a journal article online about the experiments done here:
http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0060013&ct=1
Ref: Science Daily, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031117073925.htmThe blind, furless creatures that live underground in colonies lack a body chemical called Substance P, a neurotransmitter normally in the skin that sends pain signals to the central nervous system. The rats feel no immediate pain when cut, scraped or subjected to heat stimuli. They only feel some aches.
Can anyone give me some background here? How is substance P manufactured by the body? In what cells is it made? How is it used to transmit the ‘pain’ signal?
I would have imagined that nerve cells relay a signal to the brain and that signal is interpreted as pain because it is received at a very specific location in the brain. Sounds like this model is overly simplified at best, and perhaps totally wrong. What’s the correct model here?
There’s also a journal article online about the experiments done here:
http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0060013&ct=1