Olfaction

From an evolutionary standpoint, olfaction is one of the oldest senses. Aiding in our memory and also in the detection of hazards, the sense of smell became a necessity in the human struggle for survival. From the creation of synthetic fragrances to even the enhancing of our sense of taste, olfaction has even affected our culture. Our sense of smell has helped establish the human race into what it is today, but could it also be affecting us on a subconscious level? First we must understand how human olfaction is made possible. Our sense of smell is part of our chemosensory system; senses in our body that rely on chemical molecules. Air (a mixture of molecules) enters the nose through the nostrils and is filtered before coming in contact…

Overview Communication is the basis for all primate social behavior. Primates communicate using a variety of modalities including olfaction, vision, and audition. While primate communication is an extensively researched topic, not all modalities have received the same amount of research. Acoustic communication has been the most often studied, followed by visual and then olfactory (Semple & Higham, 2013). Typically primates are considered visual animals and several species have the ability to…

David Dzumba djd0166 Critique of “The self-reported importance of olfaction during human mate choice” Authors Sergeant, Davies, Dickins and Griffiths in their abstract say that “Olfactory characteristics were declared to be extremely important during mate selection, more so than almost all other characteristics.” Yet in the introduction they talk about visual appearance being most important, and then go on to talk about the differences between men and women and the importance of olfaction in…

Olfaction (smell) and Gustation (taste) work simultaneously with the aid of chemoreceptors, which generate nerve impulses. Chemoreceptors are able to combine the molecules that they recognize with a protein in order to create a channel on the surface of the receptors, which generates impulses. While they are both powerful senses, smell tends to be more responsive. The brain interprets the information given from taste and smell to help humans identify what it is they are eating. Scientists have…

(Allen et al. 2015). The C. elegans’ structural integral is very straightforward, consisting of 302 neurons, with 60 of them being sensory neurons (Pieczynski 2016). Thanks to this simplicity, we can easily observe C. elegans’ reaction to various reactions to stimuli in order to observe changes in behavior. Furthermore, because the worms have many genes in common with humans, we can draw parallels towards the human brain and its neurological functions. Stimulation through olfaction is a…

health, as if one if to describe someone as to have “cracked” it can mean someone who is mentally disturbed (Merriam-Webster 2015). As things such as people and furniture start to age, not only do they visually show it, but also olfactorily. Sense of smell in humans, or olfaction, is an essential and important sense in the human body. Unfortunately, not every smell is pleasant, such is the case in the story of Miss Emily. The scent of her home is described as being quite dank and dusty in the…

Furthermore, perception is the “process by which the brain actively organizes and interprets sensory information” (Wood, Wood, and Boyd, 2014. p.76). Throughout my life, I have experienced sensory adaptation with all of my different sensory experiences. The sense of smell (olfaction) uses olfactory neurons, which relay messages directly to the brain. These olfactory neurons aid in survival and are distinguishable from the many other sensory receptors. Olfactory neurons are important,…

Sensation is a physical feeling or perception resulting from something that happens to and or comes in contact with the body that begins beneath the skin. Sensory receptors are specialized neurons that respond to specific types of stimuli. Sensation occurs when sensory information is found by a sensory receptor. The conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action potential is transduction Every human being has five senses which consist of vision, smell (olfaction), taste (gustation), hearing…

causes a partial blurring of vision or patchy loss of vision. Cataracts are the most common cause of vision loss in people of 40 and is the clouding of the eye’s natural lens. Thirdly, smell also known as olfaction involves the detection and perception of chemicals floating in the air. The nose has an olfactory cleft where special cells can sense the various odors we breathe in and sends their signals to the brain through the olfactory nerve. The complete loss of smell is called anosmia…

Behavioral and Neural Events in the Olfactory System Olfaction is dependent on a large network of multiple primary and secondary processing centers connected in parallel and serial manners. Some of these centers are linked with non-olfactory regions. Olfactory receptor neurons project into the olfactory bulb which projects to the olfactory cortex. The olfactory cortex is a three layered cortex with several distinct sub-regions, the largest being the pyriform cortex. The other main components of…