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We’ve all been there – desperately holding on until reaching a toilet. Now researchers have discovered the brain cells that help mammals do this – a finding that may need to new treatments for incontinence.
Just like humans, mice learn to control when and where they urinate. To attract mates, males intentionally leave dabs of urine wherever they pick up the scent of females. Lisa Stowers of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and her colleagues used this behaviour to identify the brain cells involved in this voluntary urination.
The …