![]() ![]() His lab at NIDCR focuses on the bidirectional communication between the mind and body-deciphering how the body sends sensory information to the brain and how the mind controls pain. Liu says these results open new possibilities for treating mechanical allodynia and other types of neuropathic pain, such as trigeminal neuralgia, which is caused by damaged or irritated facial nerves.Īt NIDCR, Liu is continuing his work on the corticospinal tract and other neural pathways to better understand the brain’s mechanisms for perceiving sensory information. Liu’s team showed that eliminating certain corticospinal neurons blunted mechanical allodynia in animal models. For people with mechanical allodynia, simple tasks like changing clothes can be challenging because of the pain triggered by fabric brushing against the skin. Liu and his colleagues also found that this bundle of nerves plays a crucial role in mechanical allodynia, a neuropathic pain condition where light touch is perceived as painful. This back-and-forth between the brain and spinal cord amplifies incoming light touch sensations. By tracing signals in the nerve fibers, Liu confirmed that touch signals travel through nerves in the spinal cord and activate corticospinal neurons in the brain, which then relay the messages back to the spinal cord. These animals are slow to detect tape stuck to their paws and they are less sensitive to gentle strokes from a paintbrush. His research showed that mice with impaired corticospinal projections to the dorsal horn have reduced responses to light touch. Upon further investigation, Liu discovered that this was the case. Could this mean the tract also plays a role in sensation? Liu wondered why part of a so-called motor tract projected to a sensory region. These projections are common to all mammals. But in recent decades, scientists had found that some corticospinal nerves also project into the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, which receives information about touch and sensation from the body. In apes and humans, nerves in the corticospinal tract project into an area at the front of the spinal cord known as the ventral horn, which relays signals to skeletal muscles to initiate movement. Liu’s first inkling of a broader role for the corticospinal tract came during his postdoc studies at Boston Children’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. These findings, Liu says, “could open up possibilities for how we might manipulate our mind to control pain. But Liu’s research reveals that the tract controls more than just movement-it also appears to regulate pain signals from the body. The corticospinal tract is well-known for carrying signals that govern voluntary movements like walking and fine motor skills like grasping in apes and humans. Liu, who recently joined NIDCR as an Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator, studies a bundle of nerves called the corticospinal tract, which originates in the brain’s outer layers (cortex) and projects into the spinal cord. “I was so fascinated by the science that I decided to devote myself to the field, and now this is my career.” “He’d tell you, ‘Neuroscience is a subject where a brain studies a brain that’s why it’s so special,’” says Liu. His interest was sparked by his mentor at the time. Liu discovered his calling to neuroscience as a college intern at the Institute of Neuroscience in China. The words from ancient Chinese literature have become the motto that Liu lives by-translated into English, they say that great achievements are not accomplished by chasing fame and fortune, but by dedicating oneself to one’s calling. ![]() ![]() Four Chinese characters in calligraphy-寧靜致遠 (ning jing zhi yuan) hang framed on Yuanyuan “Kevin” Liu’s office wall. ![]()
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