Two recent studies have expanded our understanding of the circuits controlling urination: one described a projection from brainstem to spinal cord that relaxes the urethral sphincter, and the other revealed a subpopulation of brainstem-projecting layer 5 pyramidal neurons in primary motor cortex that direct the initiation of urination.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Minassian, V. A., Drutz, H. P. & Al-Badr, A. Int. J. Gynaecol. Obstet. 82, 327–338 (2003).
Fowler, C. J., Griffiths, D. & de Groat, W. C. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 9, 453–466 (2008).
Griffiths, D. Nat. Rev. Urol. 12, 695–705 (2015).
Griffiths, D. J. Curr. Urol. Rep. 5, 348–352 (2004).
de Groat, W. C., Griffiths, D. & Yoshimura, N. Compr. Physiol. 5, 327–396 (2015).
de Groat, W. C. & Wickens, C. Acta Physiol. (Oxf.) 207, 66–84 (2013).
Merrill, L., Gonzalez, E. J., Girard, B. M. & Vizzard, M. A. Nat. Rev. Urol. 13, 193–204 (2016).
Barrington, F. J. F. Q. J. Exp. Physiol. 15, 81–102 (1925).
Hou, X. H. et al. Cell 167, 73–86 (2016).
Keller, J. A. et al. Nat. Neurosci. 21, 1229–1238 (2018).
Malykhina, A. P. eLife 6, e33219 (2017).
Yao, J. et al. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-256-4 (2018).
Smith, B. N. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97, 9264–9269 (2000).
Adelsberger, H., Garaschuk, O. & Konnerth, A. Nat. Neurosci. 8, 988–990 (2005).
Zingg, B. et al. Neuron 93, 33–47 (2017).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ni, Z., Hu, H. Let it go: central neural control of urination. Nat Neurosci 21, 1499–1501 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0259-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0259-1