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Nature 448, 147-148 (12 July 2007) | doi:10.1038/448147a; Published online 11 July 2007

Neurophysiology: Channelling cold reception

Bernd Nilius1 & Thomas Voets1

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Perception of cold and hot is one of life's essentials. Three research teams find that, when a temperature-sensing receptor is deleted in mice, the animals lose their response to a range of cold temperatures.

In his description of the five senses, Aristotle described visus (sight) as the most supreme sense, yielding the highest pleasure, and contactus (touch and sensing temperature) as the most rudimentary sense, required for sheer survival1. Indeed, to maintain a healthy core body temperature of 37 °C, humans — like other animals that can retain a relatively constant internal body temperature — need to be able to 'feel' the ambient temperature and show a suitable physiological or behavioural response to drastic fluctuations in it.