Mammalian Circuits Underlying Touch Sensation
Recent advances in molecular genetics, optogenetics, and neuroimaging are bringing us closer to revealing the logic and function of neural circuits underlying our sense of touch. This meeting will focus on mammalian low-threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMRs) and their associated neural circuits within the spinal cord, brain stem and cortex that underlie tactile perception, object and form recognition, and the affective component of touch. Topics included: functions of LTMR subtypes; tools for visualizing and manipulating LTMRs; functional organization of LTMR endings; identification of postsynaptic targets of LTMRs; organization of interneurons and projection neurons of the spinal cord dorsal horn; organization of somatosensory brain stem nuclei; and model systems and behavioral assays for understanding the roles of LTMR afferents in tactile sensation. We brought together molecular geneticists, physiologists and behavioral scientists using rodent, human, and non-human primates model systems, with the goal of revealing the principles and core logic of mammalian tactile circuitry.
Organizers
David Ginty, HHMI/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Steven Hsiao, Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute
Ellen Lumpkin, Columbia University
Karel Svoboda, Janelia Farm Research Campus/HHMI
Invited Participants
Diana Bautista, University of California, Berkeley
Sliman Bensmaia, University of Chicago
Michael Caterina, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Elaine Chapman, University of Montreal
Xinzhong Dong, HHMI/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Esther Gardner, NYU School of Medicine
Gregory Gerling, University of Virginia
Daniel Goldreich, McMaster University
Mitra Hartmann, Northwestern University
Shawn Hochman, Emory University
Roland Johansson, Umeå University
Richard Koerber, University of Pittsburgh
Gary Lewin, Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine
Wenqin Luo, University of Pennsylvania
Qiufu Ma, Harvard Medical School
Francis McGlone, Liverpool John Moores University
Daniel O'Connor, Johns Hopkins University
Håkan Olausson, Sahlgrenska University Hospital
Ardem Patapoutian, HHMI/Scripps Research Institute
Carl Petersen, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Frank Rice, Integrated Tissue Dynamics (INTIDYN)
Cornelius Schwarz, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research
Rebecca Seal, University of Pittsburgh
Cheryl Stucky, Medical College of Wisconsin
Fan Wang, Duke University
John Wood, University College London
C. Jeffery Woodbury. University of Wyoming
