The genes behind the sixth sense

About the episode

Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch: the five senses that everyone knows. But there is a sixth, less well-known one: proprioception. Our central nervous system receives information about our muscles and joints, our posture and our place in space.

This unconscious sense ensures that we don’t bump into objects and can even bring a cup of coffee to our mouths with our eyes closed. In short: it allows us to make coordinated movements.

Some people get it wrong in this area, which is why the researchers felt it was important to better understand how the network behind proprioception works. Long fibers connect sensory nerve cells in the spine to structures in our body that register muscle tension and stretch. This information goes to the central nervous system from which movements are then controlled.

But how do these proprioception cells arise and what provides their unique connection to our muscles and joints? In the study, they found different genes responsible for this for each muscle group. They also saw that these are already active in our embryonic phase. They also found genes behind the protein that influence nerve fiber growth to some extent.

With this new knowledge and a whole series of follow-up studies, the researchers hope to eventually be able to provide patients with, for example, spinal injuries, better neuroprostheses. But they also want to further investigate the link between proprioception and common back and hip problems.

Read more: sixth sense genes.