Here's a hairy truth about your sense of touch

Researchers showed that cells in your hair follicles release important chemical messengers in response to gentle touches to your skin

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WHEN SOMEONE BRUSHES a hand across your skin, it's like a breeze blowing through a forest of countless small hairs. Nerves that surround your hair follicles detect that contact, and very far away in your brain, other cells fire. Some of the neurons responding to light contact might make you shiver and give you goose bumps. Some might tell you to move away. Or they might tell you to move closer.

Scientists who study the sense of touch have explored which cells bear these messages, and they have made an intriguing discovery: Follicle cells triggered by hair movements release the neurotransmitters histamine and serotonin, chemical messengers linked to biological phenomena as varied as inflammation, muscle contraction and mood changes. The observation in the journal Science Advances, lays the groundwork for tracing how gentle touch makes us feel the way it does.