The central nervous system of the human body consists of the brain and the spinal cord is responsible for interpreting and analysing pain or heat sensation outside the body, this is what people have known till now. Scientists have come up with a theory of 'mini brains' recently, which is something different and informative. The study was done on rodents.
As written in EurekAlert, a new study has been conducted by the Hebei Medical University of China and the University of Leeds regarding the role of ganglia, which is the collection of 'nodules'. As per the research, the ganglia have the capability to act as 'mini brains', as they can modify the amount of information which is being sent to the central nervous system.
This is a new discovery regarding the nervous system because till now it was known that the peripheral system was mainly a wiring network that used to relay information to and from the body's central nervous system by delivering information and messages to the brain, which act as a control center of the body. Now the new theory states that ganglia also act as 'mini brains' because it can modify the information and messages sent to the brain.
It was stated in the University of Leeds that the findings in the study have been in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The theory of 'mini brains' will have some potential implication on future drugs used as painkillers including medications of a backache and arthritis pain.
This new research of 'mini brains' also finds a way for developing non-addictive and non-drowsy drugs which are targeted at the peripheral nervous system. However, the research was done on rodent's peripheral nervous system but more research is to be done for understanding the sensation on the human body. If it is successful for the human body as well, the drug development companies would adopt the new theory to apply it to the future medications. At least 15 to 20 years of time will be taken for production of the new working drugs on this theory.
