ArticleCell2023
Touch neurons underlying dopaminergic pleasurable touch and sexual receptivity.
Article in Cell, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- Mrgprb4-Lineage Neurons Participate in the Intervention of TENS Effects on Chronic Pain and Anxiety-like Symptoms in an Inflammatory Pain Mouse Model.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Multi-omic profiling of human and mouse dorsal root ganglia enables targeted gene delivery to nociceptors.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Oxytocin Modulation of Spinal Circuits Drives Therapeutic Benefits of Massage.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Peptide Modulator of TRPV1 Channel Increases Long-Term Potentiation in the Hippocampus and Reduces Anxiety and Fear in Mice Under Acute Stress.Marine drugs · 2026Article
- Tactile stimulation reverses painful stimuli outcomes via PVN-VTA oxytocin circuitry and dopaminergic regulation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Article
- How dopamine guides our social world.Pharmacological reviews · 2025Review
- Merkel cell stimulation in fear and sensory signaling.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Primary sensory neuron dysfunction underlying mechanical itch hypersensitivity in a Shank3 mouse model of autism.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Knockout of Bmal1 in dopaminergic neurons induces ADHD-like symptoms via hyperactive dopamine signaling in male mice.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2025Article
- Article
- The evolving neurobiology of early-life stress.Neuron · 2025Review
- A reduced ability to discriminate social from non-social touch at the circuit level may underlie social avoidance in autism.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Trauma and Sensory Systems: Biological Mechanisms Involving the Skin and the 17q21 Gene Cluster.Biological psychiatry · 2025Review
- Differential modification of ascending spinal outputs in acute and chronic pain states.Neuron · 2025Article
- MrgprC11American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Mrgprb4-lineage neurons indispensable in pressure induced pleasant sensation are polymodal.iScience · 2025Article
- Interactions of sex and stress in modulation of ventral tegmental area dopaminergic activity.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Pleasurable touch is paramount during social behavior, including sexual encounters. However, the identity and precise role of sensory neurons that transduce sexual touch remain unknown. A population of sensory neurons labeled by developmental expression of the G protein-coupled receptor Mrgprb4 detects mechanical stimulation in mice. Here, we study the social relevance of Mrgprb4-lineage neurons and reveal that these neurons are required for sexual receptivity and sufficient to induce dopamine release in the brain. Even in social isolation, optogenetic stimulation of Mrgprb4-lineage neurons through the back skin is sufficient to induce a conditioned place preference and a striking dorsiflexion resembling the lordotic copulatory posture. In the absence of Mrgprb4-lineage neurons, female mice no longer find male mounts rewarding: sexual receptivity is supplanted by aggression and a coincident decline in dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Together, these findings establish that Mrgprb4-lineage neurons initiate a skin-to-brain circuit encoding the rewarding quality of social touch.
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