The brain is made aware of the external environment by sensory nerve cells. These cells connect both to small sense organs in the skin, and, at their other end, to nerve cells in the brain. In order for the organism to properly understand signals from its environment, the sensory nerve cell must make the proper connection between the correct sense organ and the correct brain cell. This project will examine how these proper connections are made during embryonic development. The normal connections between sensory nerve cells and the skin will be modified in a way that would occur after nerve damage. It will then be determined how changes in the sensory nerve cell's connections to the skin in turn changes which cells they connect to in the brain. This project has the potential to improve our understanding of the mechanisms that promote proper connections among nerve cells during embryonic development and during regeneration of nerves after injury.
