Making Sense Of Smell : From Odorant Receptors To The Olfactory Cortex
Journal Title: International Journal of Basic and Applied Physiology - Year 2013, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
The olfactory system is uniquely essential for life. Olfactory receptor cells, located in the olfactory mucous membrane.project to the olfactory glomeruli where they synapse with the lateral dendrites of the mitral and tufted cells. This mechanism of lateral inhibition sharpens the olfactory signal enabling differentiation of odours. From the olfactory glomeruli, second –order neurons project to the olfactory cortex which has evolved over millions of years. It consists of an older system (concerned with primitive responses to olfaction) and a newer system ( concerned with the conscious analysis of odour). The intriguing question as to how human beings can detect 10,000 different odours was solved by two scientists Drs. Richard Axel and Linda Buck. They unravelled the 1000 different olfactory receptors, each activated by a combination of different odours Genes coding for the olfactory receptors form the largest gene family in humans, larger than the T-cell receptor gene family.
Authors and Affiliations
swapnil PARALIKAR
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