Question

A virus has been sweeping through southern Arizona, causing neurological symptoms of numbness. You know that blood Na+, K+ and Ca++ levels are normal (140, 5, 9 mequivalents per liter, respectively). You are researchers focused on understanding how the virus is affecting neurons. You have been able to infect rats with the virus, and they also appear to experience numbness, as indicated by their lack of response to touch. First, how could you test whether the virus was affecting just touch receptors vs. more generalized parts of the brain, say the ascending tracts that carry the touch information, or the brain?

Answer 1

Question

If the virus have attack on the only on the touch receptor then it will lead to the symptoms like there is a reduced sense of touch , numbness and also there is a reduced sensitivity to sensory stimuli. This is because touch receptors transmit information of any external stimuli perceived to the brain which process the information and send back the necessary output to these receptor whereas if the virus have attack the brain then it will cause complete loss of sensation to the external stimuli, the person will not respond to any touch sensation and also could lead to the death of the person.