Source: University of Leeds.

The body’s peripheral nervous system could be capable of interpreting its environment and modulating pain, neuroscientists have established, after studying how rodents reacted to stimulation.

Until now, accepted scientific theory has held that only the central nervous system – the brain and spinal cord – could actually interpret and analyse sensations such as pain or heat.

The peripheral system that runs throughout the body was seen to be a mainly wiring network, relaying information to and from the central nervous system by delivering messages to the ‘control centre’ (the brain), which then tells the body how to react.

In recent years there has been some evidence of a more complex role for the peripheral nervous system, but this study by Hebei Medical University in China and the…