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NEURAL CIRCUITS

Let it go: central neural control of urination

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.

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Fig. 1: Neural circuits for driving micturition.

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Correspondence to Hailan Hu.

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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

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