SNIFFngo Personal Aromapod
  • Home
  • Sense of Smell
  • Aromapod
  • BeKind.BeCalm.BeSafe.
  • Shop
    • E.O. Mood Boosters
    • Organic Single Note
    • BeKind.BeCalm.BeSafe
    • Scent Therapy
    • D.iY. Aromapods
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Charity
    • Smelling Blog
    • Contact

How Does Our Sense of Smell Work?

6/15/2015

0 Comments

 
Whether for finding food, avoiding predators or choosing a mate, the sense of smell is critical for the existence of almost all creatures. Humans are able to distinguish over 10,000 different odor molecules, utilizing our sense of smell for a multitude of activities from enjoying the aroma of freshly brewed coffee to deciding whom not to sit next to on the bus.
 
In the last 20 years, scientists have made great advances to our understanding of how our nose detects odor molecules and our brain processes the resulting information that gives rise to the sensation of smell.
 
Every time we inhale, currents of air swirl up through the nostrils, over the bony turbinates, to a “sheet” about the size of a small postage stamp that contains millions of olfactory receptor neurons. This is the olfactory epithelium.
Olfactory Region
Each of the millions of olfactory neurons has minuscule filaments (cilia) extending from its knob. This knob is located at the tip of the olfactory neuron and the cilia project from the knob directly into the atmosphere. This is the only part of the brain that projects into the atmosphere. The cilia contain olfactory receptors, specialized proteins that bind low molecular weight molecules (odorants).
Picture
​One of the big breakthroughs of the past 15 years was the discovery by L. Buck and R. Axel of a large multi-gene family that encode for these olfactory receptors. Each receptor has a pocket (binding site) that is just the right shape to bind either a specific molecule or a group of structurally similar molecules. The interaction of the right molecule with the right receptor causes the receptor to change its shape (structural conformation). This conformational change gives rise to an electrical signal that goes first to the olfactory bulb and then to the areas of the brain that convert the electrical signal to a smell.
 
In 1996, Peter Mombaerts found that olfactory neurons containing the same olfactory receptor, while randomly scattered within one of four spatial zones of the olfactory epithelium, project to only two specific areas (glomeruli) in the olfactory bulb. These findings suggest that the bulb transfers information that is broadly distributed in the olfactory epithelium into a highly organized information map that is in essence a map of the information provided by the different olfactory receptors.
 
Systematic studies have shown that different odorants are represented by distinct spatial activity patterns in the glomerular layer of the olfactory bulb. These results in turn suggest a combinatorial mechanism for olfactory coding wherein the responses of olfactory receptors to odorants produce spatial patterns of olfactory bulb activity that are characteristic for a given odorant or blend of odorants, e.g. a perfume.
Thus, it appears that these spatial patterns of activity create the information that leads to recognition of odor quality and intensity and discrimination between odors. This information is processed at higher levels of the olfactory system and in the brain giving rise to the perception of smell.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Breaths comes in pairs except for two times in our lives – the beginning and the end.

    Categories

    All
    Aromapod
    Aromatherapy
    Essential Oils
    How To Smell A Rose
    Mindful Smelling Blog
    Our Sense Of Smell
    The Science Of SoS

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

Navigate:

Quick Links:

Location: 108 Mile Ranch, BC

  • ​Home
  • Sense of Smell
  • ​Aromapod
  • About 
  • Aromapods
  • Roll-Ons
  • Essential Oils
  • Blog​
  • ​Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Condition
  • Shipping and Returns​
  • Support
Copyrights©2018, All Rights Reserved by SNIFFngo Aromas
  • Home
  • Sense of Smell
  • Aromapod
  • BeKind.BeCalm.BeSafe.
  • Shop
    • E.O. Mood Boosters
    • Organic Single Note
    • BeKind.BeCalm.BeSafe
    • Scent Therapy
    • D.iY. Aromapods
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Charity
    • Smelling Blog
    • Contact