A caress from a loved one can trigger reward and promote a warm embrace. Conversely, noxious stimuli can trigger pain and unpleasantness. As a field, we have identified receptor proteins in the skin that allow peripheral sensory neurons to detect touch and pain. One of the next big challenges in the field is understanding the integrated response from skin to brain – from detection to perception. It is critical that this gap in knowledge is closed, in order to provide safe ways to treat pain, and to enhance the rewarding nature of social encounters in people suffering neurologic and psychiatric deficits such as autism or major depression.

Work in the Abdus-Saboor lab is integrating the peripheral and central nervous systems, seeking to uncover genes and neural circuits for somatosensation from the skin to the spinal cord and interconnected networks across the brain. We are elucidating the “skin-brain axis” – taking a holistic approach that combines high-resolution behavioral mapping, brain imaging, and neural circuit manipulations. This seminar will be divided into three parts, featuring discoveries made in the Abdus-Saboor lab including 1) identification of a skin-brain neuronal pathway in mice for rewarding social touch, 2) development of quantitative pain scales in mice for connecting pain behavioral signatures with neural circuits, and 3) the role of social touch in naked mole-rat colonies. Each section will conclude with future directions about where the lab is taking each major project.