{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,20]],"date-time":"2026-03-20T20:28:34Z","timestamp":1774038514907,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"The Company of Biologists","issue":"20","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2011,10,15]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>SUMMARY<\/jats:title><jats:p>Responses to gentle touch in young Xenopus tadpoles are mediated by spinal cord sensory Rohon\u2013Beard neurons. Tadpoles also respond to noxious stimuli that elicit \u2018skin impulses\u2019, which propagate between epithelial cells over the whole body surface, somehow entering the CNS to generate a response. After hatching (\u223c48 h post-fertilization), skin impulse signals enter the CNS only via cranial nerves, but previous evidence suggested the possibility of direct entry to the spinal cord before this (\u223c24 h). We have used behavioural and electrophysiological methods to explore the developmental pattern of skin impulse entry into the spinal cord and the involvement of Rohon\u2013Beard neurons. Lesioning confirmed that skin impulse signals can directly enter the spinal cord in young embryos, but access decreases over \u223c12 h and disappears soon after hatching. Electrical recordings from central Rohon\u2013Beard axons in young embryos showed firing in response to skin impulses. However, unit recordings from Rohon\u2013Beard somata showed that individuals that responded to touch within a characteristic, localised receptive field did not fire to skin impulses, whereas others from similar locations responded reliably. Developmental loss of skin impulse access to the spinal cord mirrored the known spread of sensitivity to gentle touch as the peripheral mechanosensory endings of Rohon\u2013Beard neurons mature. Together, these results suggest that Rohon\u2013Beard neurons respond to skin impulses only while immature, providing a transitory route for skin impulses to excite the CNS. In this way, Rohon\u2013Beard neurons would mediate responses first to noxious and then to localised, gentle touch stimuli as the neurons developed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1242\/jeb.058446","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,9,28]],"date-time":"2011-09-28T18:46:07Z","timestamp":1317235567000},"page":"3341-3350","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Skin impulse excitation of spinal sensory neurons in developing<i>Xenopus laevis<\/i>(Daudin) tadpoles"],"prefix":"10.1242","volume":"214","author":[{"given":"Lisa J.","family":"James","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Stephen R.","family":"Soffe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"237","reference":[{"key":"2021042506210929800_R1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3910","DOI":"10.1242\/jeb.009662","article-title":"Nitric oxide modulation of the electrically excitable skin of Xenopus laevis frog tadpoles","volume":"210","author":"Alpert","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. 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