Sensation of pleasant touch:from molecules to circuits and behaviours

A recent study by Liu et al.identifed a crucial role of the PROK2-PROKR2 signalling within the spinal circuit in pleasant touch sensation(Fig.1),providing the first evidence for the molecular and neural basis of how pleasant touch information is encoded and integrated from the skin to the spinal cord and highlighting the important role of neuropeptides in the processing of somatosensory information1(Fig.1).