Our body shows with obvious evidence when we feel sexual desire, cold or even fear. Now, new research led by the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) has concluded that certain nerve cells are actually responsible for arousal of the nipples or goose bumps (or piloerection).
Thus, the cellular mechanism behind these very human reactions dismantles the theory of the sympathetic nervous system (in charge of bodily functions such as locomotion, ingestion or body temperature), which gave power to the theory of an involuntary action outside of conscious control, and places it as a reaction orchestrated by different types of very specific neurons that regulate specific physiological functions such as erectile muscle control.
“The sympathetic nervous system is made up of many types of neurons that regulate specific functions in the body. We found that goose bumps and arousal of the nipples are caused by specialized neurons through the control of erection muscles in these tissues ”, clarifies Alessandro Furlan, co-author of the work.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers carried out a large-scale analysis of sympathetic nerve cells , discovering that there are many types of these neurons, very heterogeneous and focused on particular functions.
“Now that we have cellular and molecular information, the future promises to be very exciting when this knowledge can be used to understand how this system forms during gestation and how different types of neurons control the different functions of the body,” concludes Patrik Ernfors , leader of the investigation.
The study has been published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
