Cooling, pain, and other feelings from the body in relation to the autonomic nervous system.

The main sensory input to the autonomic nervous system comes from small-diameter sensory fibers by way of lamina I neurons in the superficial dorsal horn. This pathway supports organotopic homeostatic control of the body's condition, but also human feelings from the body, such as temperature, pain, itch, affective touch, muscle ache, vascular flush, and so on. The anatomical pathways described in this chapter reveal that these feelings are correlates of behavioral homeostatic responses needed to maintain the health of the body. These findings suggest that bodily feelings provide important measures of the body's condition, support emotional well-being and awareness, and can be a significant therapeutic avenue.