Somatosensation

Recent articles

Photograph of Theanne Griffith sitting at a table with her hands interlocked over a stack of books, with one that she has published at the very top.

Crafting tales of science with Theanne Griffith

A lifelong passion for writing helped the neuroscientist land a book deal and publish 15 chapter books for early readers, covering topics ranging from what the cerebellum does to how a cake bakes.

By Angie Voyles Askham
26 August 2024 | 8 min read
Research image of a Pacinian corpuscle in a mouse.

Touch sensors detect subtle environmental vibrations, send information to auditory midbrain

Pacinian corpuscles sense high-frequency vibrations from meters away and send the information to a different circuit than other touch signals, according to a pair of new studies.

By Calli McMurray
20 August 2024 | 8 min read

Robots boost data consistency in rodent studies reliant on mechanical, optogenetic stimulation

Two new devices take experimenter variation out of the equation, the lead investigators say.

By Calli McMurray
15 May 2024 | 0 min watch

Explore more from The Transmitter

Two prairie voles.

Oxytocin prompts prairie voles to oust outsiders, fortifying their friendships

The “love hormone” drives the neurobiology behind platonic bonds in animals usually studied for their romantic attachments.

By Holly Barker
8 August 2025 | 8 min listen
A red pencil sits on top of a stack of white papers.

Contested paper on vaccines, autism in rats retracted by journal

The editor-in-chief cited “inconsistencies in the number of subjects” as the reason for the retraction.

By Marta Hill
7 August 2025 | 5 min listen

Body state, sensory signals commingle in mouse whisker cortex

The new study challenges a long-held view that the barrel cortex exclusively encodes sensory signals from the whiskers.

By Claudia López Lloreda
6 August 2025 | 6 min listen