University of California - Los Angeles Aug 13 2025 Threadworms, which are a type of parasitic nematode, spend a lot of time crawling around on human skin, poking and prodding to find the best place for entry before burrowing in. But disrupting a particular dopamine-sensing pathway causes them to lose interest, UCLA neurobiologists said in a new paper published in Nature Communications .  In humans, dopamine is associated with pleasure and reward. In parasitic worms, the same molecule is