TRP Channels and Thermosensation

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Abstract
Recent years have seen great advances in the molecular description of sensory neurobiology. Of the five popularly characterized senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch), touch is perhaps the most varied and least understood. Within this modality is the ability to sense mechanical forces, chemical stimuli, and temperature, and the molecules that mediate this ability have been a long-standing mystery. Temperature sensation in particular has received relatively little attention from physiologists and yet is critical for interaction with the environment (Hensel, 1981). My group and others have recently discovered the proteins that enable sensory neurons to convey temperature information. These proteins are ion channels activated by specific changes in temperature, thus acting as the molecular thermometers of our body.

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