Scientists have unraveled new details about which nerve cells control goose bumps

Goose bumps may play a role in hair growth

Research in mice suggests that the same muscles that contract to create goose bumps act as the bridge for the sympathetic nervous system’s connection to hair follicle stem cells. This raises questions about how this knowledge could be used to reactivate the sympathetic nerves in hair follicles to boost hair growth in people.

Some of us can control our goose bumps

A small 2018 study examined the rare ability to control goose bumps. Researchers found some intriguing associations between having a particularly open and curious personality type and the ability to trigger this sensation—a link that they hope will be explored further in the future.

Goose bumps are often triggered by emotions

A physiologist and professor of zoology explains that the subconscious release of adrenaline, a stress hormone, causes a contraction of skin muscles. It’s released in several situations, including when humans are cold, afraid, or feel strong emotions. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Goose bumps require a surprisingly complex series of steps

Watch an anatomical breakdown of how goose bumps work—featuring real skin from a human cadaver, a segmented brain, and a detailed anatomical model of the skin—to learn about all the jargon behind goose bump science. (Warning: Includes graphic footage of cadaver skin.)

There’s a lot we still don’t know about goose bumps in humans

Though goose bumps can be associated with changes in skin temperature, the biggest gaps in our understanding are around measuring goose bumps from nonthreatening exposures. These bumps can often occur without our detection, and we have trouble correctly identifying them. The relationship between emotionally induced chills and goose bumps can also be tenuous.

The anatomy of our hair follicles explains goose bumps

The arrector pili muscle contracts when we’re cold or scared, causing hairs to stand up and the skin to form the bumps known as goose bumps. This reaction is typically involuntary.

The brains of people who experience frisson have unique neural pathways

A small 2016 study aimed to investigate the behavioral and neural differences between 10 individuals who experience goose bumps when listening to music and 10 who typically don’t. Scientists reported that individuals experiencing musical chills had greater white matter connectivity in specific auditory, emotional, and social processing areas of the brain.

Artificial goose bumps could theoretically be used for information storage

Inspired by how fine hairs stand on the skin with goose bumps, researchers have recently created artificial skin that raises artificial goose bumps when exposed to a laser. This type of precise, localized, and controllable system could potentially fuel later development of programmable machines that could be used for information storage.

Long-term goose bumps are something to flag to your doctor

Although rarely a cause for concern, persistent goose bumps with no known cause could be a symptom of something to discuss with your doctor, including anxiety, a hair follicle blockage, or conditions that arise from an overreaction of the autonomic nervous system.

Charles Darwin studied goose bumps by scaring zoo animals in London with a stuffed snake

Read the famous naturalist’s work from the late 1800s, detailing how he sought to draw comparisons between how animals and humans respond to fear. As part of that work, he exposed monkeys and a peccary to a stuffed snake and noted the animals’ hair-raising fear response.

Itching is caused by stimulated nerve cells in the skin

Scratching produces low-level pain signals to the brain, distracting from the itch. Scratching also releases serotonin, a neurotransmitter that creates a happy sensation, which resets the itch signal. This can cause a cyclical itch-scratch cycle.

Humans likely cannot tickle themselves because there's no element of surprise

Unraveling the neural mechanisms of tickling—formally called gargalesis—is an area of active research, but a leading theory about why we can't tickle ourselves is that the brain's somatosensory cortex processes self-touch differently than it does external touch. The cerebellum already anticipated what was going to happen when you move your hand for self-touch, limiting the effectiveness of a self-tickle.

Many parts of the body, including the testicles, have bitter, sweet, and umami receptors

Taste receptors—the tiny cells that report the chemical makeup of external stimuli to the brain—in the testicles don't "taste" in the same way as the gustatory ones you use to determine if there's enough sugar in your tea. Research suggests that these "teste" receptors can sense bitter, sweet, and umami compounds and use that chemical input to control physiological processes or (literally) change direction. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The body's master clock has 20,000 neurons

The suprachiasmatic nucleus, the master clock in mammals, has 20,000 neurons that help maintain the light-dark cycle in the body. Among its jobs: It receives light input information from the retina and then signals peripheral body clocks to act on this information, driving everything from body temperature to hunger.

Listen to how the gut microbiome influences your emotions

The gut-microbiome connection may involve the enteric nervous system, a collection of hundreds of millions of neurons throughout the gut that transmit signals up the vagus nerve to the brain.

How brain cells carry information

At any moment, there is an electrical storm coursing through your body. Discover how chemical reactions create an electric current that drives our responses to everything from hot pans to a mother’s caress.

A web of sensory neurons in the skin help filter out background sensations

The somatosensory system helps us organize and navigate our surroundings, enabling us to understand our bodies in relation to our environment and also filter out minor sensations that are basically background noise so they aren't overwhelming to our bodies. Meanwhile, viscerosensation—or internal sensation—refers to the internal sensory neuron system that conveys information from internal organs to the brain.

Meet the 12 cranial nerves

Your cranial nerves are a set of 12 paired nerves in your brain. They help your brain and body communicate senses, movement or both.

Researchers are investigating if nanoparticle treatments could combat allergies

In rodent work, Northwestern University’s Evan Scott (now at the University of Virginia) and his colleagues have been trying to attack allergies with specially designed nanoparticles—miniscule lab-made objects that can penetrate cells. They stud the nanoparticles with a tiny bit of the allergen specific to the allergy (i.e. cashew protein for cashew allergy) and antibodies that shut down allergic response processes.

Twin studies helped scientists understand why mosquitoes like some of us more than others

A combination of carbon dioxide output, skin chemistry, genetic factors, hormones, and clothing choice can make us particularly vulnerable to mosquito bites. Watch how mosquitoes responded to one man in the video versus his wife, a research approach typically conducted with identical and fraternal twins to test mosquito attractiveness.

Extreme heat is neurologically impairing animals

Dog bites increase in summer, birds struggle to learn, and goats pick more fights. Scientists are unraveling new details about how heat impairs animals' neurological systems.

Some animals may anchor their brain cells to specific landmarks to determine direction

In a study of bats exploring a new area, specific sets of "head direction cells" were seen becoming active based on bats' orientation when moving, and this activity became more coordinated over time. Researchers suspect, like humans, bats and other animals establish this sense of direction based on movement relative to known points of interest.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

How skeletal and smooth muscles differ

Skeletal and smooth muscles are two of the three muscle types found throughout the body. The former is attached to bones via tendons, enables limb movement, and is consciously controlled. The latter is found lining blood vessels and hollow organs (e.g., the intestines, stomach, and esophagus) and is managed by the autonomic nervous system, which means it's outside conscious control.

Cordyceps: the fungi that turn ants into zombies

The hit show (and video game) "Last of Us" was inspired partly by real-life species of fungi that have been known to turn ants into zombies. Spores of the Cordyceps fungi are capable of penetrating the exoskeletons of arthropods, after which they break into enzymes and proliferate within the body. The fungal cells then hack the ant's nervous system and trigger compulsive climbing.

Every virus is classified into 7 groups based on genetic differences

Viruses infecting humans have been named based on symptoms ("chickenpox") or the location or animal in which they were first discovered ("Bolivian Haemorrhagic Fever" and "Monkeypox"). For clarity among scientists and to reduce stigma, virologists classify the 15,000 known viruses (270 of which infect humans) by their basic genetic material.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

Poison ivy can cause rashes year-round since all parts of the plant contain urushiol, the oil that triggers our allergic response.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Three Ebola species are responsible for most large outbreaks of the disease, yet the only approved Ebola vaccine is known to work against just one of them.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island