When our hand touches something hot, like a candle, a nerve signal is created in the skin and travels to the brain, letting us know that we need to move our hand. However, some people do not get a signal to the brain. Therefore, they are unable to feel pain. This is a rare pain disorder. These patients often have a mutation in the gene SCN9A, which is a protein in the peripheral nerve endings that contributes to creating the signal from the nerve in the skin to the brain.
During this talk, I will show how we can use a computational model to understand how nerve signals in the skin are created and the influence of the SCN9A mutation.
When our hand touches something hot, like a candle, a nerve signal is created in the skin and travels to the brain, letting us know that we need to move our hand. However, some people do not get a signal to the brain. Therefore, they are unable to feel pain. This is a rare pain disorder. These patients often have a mutation in the gene SCN9A, which is a protein in the peripheral nerve endings that contributes to creating the signal from the nerve in the skin to the brain.
During this talk, I will show how we can use a computational model to understand how nerve signals in the skin are created and the influence of the SCN9A mutation.