An initiative supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) It seeks to reveal how the nervous system monitors and regulates the internal organs of the body.

How does your brain recognize when it is time to take a breath, when has your blood pressure dropped or when does your body fight an infection? According to Scitechdaily.com, the key is located in intuitiona lesser known process through which the nervous system monitors and interprets the internal signals to maintain the basic functions of the body.

Researchers from Scripps Research and the Allen Institute were honored with the Transforming Research Award of the Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) for the development of the first integrated map of the House’s internal sensory network.

The project will lead the Nobel Prize -winning Neuroscientist Ardem Patapani, in collaboration with Lee YE.

The initiative is supported of funding of $ 14.2 million from the NIH for the next five years.

Decoding the signals inside

Potapousian, who shared the 2021 Nobel Prize or Medicine Award for the discovery of cellular touch sensors, will use the NIH award with his team to decode the intimidation.

“We hope that our results will help other scientists ask new questions about how the internal organs and the nervous system remain synchronized,” YE said.

Unlike classical senses, such as smell, vision and hearing – which are external and based on specialized sensory organs – intercourse works through a network of nerve pathways that follow functions such as blood circulation, digestion and immune activity. Because these signals come from deep into the body and often undergoing conscious awareness, intracerement is often described as the Our “hidden sixth sense”.

Despite its importance, intra -dictation has historically been neglected because of its complexity. The signals from the internal organs are widely disseminated, often overlapped and difficult to isolate and measure. The sensory neurons that carry these messages penetrate the tissues – from the heart and lungs to the stomach and kidneys – without clear anatomical boundaries.

Construction of the first interactive atlas

With the support of the NIH, the group will record how sensory neurons are associated with a wide range of internal organs, including the heart and gastrointestinal tract. Using their findings, the researchers aim to create an integrated atlas that will anatomically and molecularly record these nerve paths.

In the anatomical section of the project, the researchers will point out and follow the visualization of the sensory nerve cells, recording their journey from the spinal cord to the various organs and creating a detailed three -dimensional map of paths and branches. In the molecular leg, the group will try to identify the different types of sensory neurons, revealing, for example, how neurons sending signals from the intestine differ from those associated with the bladder or adipose tissue. From the combination of this data, the first standard framework for mapping the internal sensory network of the body will emerge.

Decoding the intraimetability, the team also hopes to disclose Basic principles of body-brain communication that could guide new approaches to the treatment of diseases. Dysfunction of intrastations has been associated with autoimmune diseases, chronic pain, neurodegenerative diseases and high blood pressure.

“The intra -vigor is fundamental to almost every aspect of health, but it remains a largely unexplored field of neuroscience,” said Xin Jin, an associate professor at the scripps research. “The first map of this system will allow us to better understand how the brain maintains balance, how it is disturbed by diseases and how it could be restored,” the researcher concluded.