Itch and its inhibition by counter stimuli

Recent studies have made significant progress in the knowledge of how itch sensation is processed, especially the molecular identity of neurons involved in itch signaling, both in the dorsal root ganglion and spinal cord. Despite these advances, the organization of these neurons in dorsal spinal cord circuits and how they interact with other somatosensory modalities, such as pain or temperature, remain relatively unexplored. Recent work from our lab and others has begun to shed light on these questions and will be the focus of this chapter. Here we describe the discovery of B5-I neurons, a population of inhibitory interneurons that function to inhibit itch, and review the evidence that these neurons mediate the inhibition of itch by counter stimuli. These studies are helping to solve the long-standing question of why itch makes us scratch.