Scientists have discovered neurons in mice that fire in response
to gentle, stroking touch. The neurons, described in the Jan. 31
issue of the journal Nature, may explain why animals, from rats
to cats to humans, enjoy grooming each other and being stroked.
The new discovery could also lead one day to a kind of massage
pill, said Alan Basbaum, a neuroscientist at the University of
California San Francisco, who was not involved in the study.
"It's a nice piece of work. It's technically elegant, and it
does have interesting implications," Basbaum told LiveScience.
If these neurons can be activated by certain chemicals, "you
could generate drugs that make you feel good." Most people,
along with many other mammals, enjoy being gently stroked, but
why people enjoy massage isn't clear, said study co-author David
Anderson, a neuroscientist at the California Institute of
Technology. But because mammals do a lot of social grooming,
being wired to find such touch pleasurable would be important in
strengthening ties amo