Just like a road atlas faithfully maps real-word locations, our brain maps many aspects of our physical world: Sensory inputs from our fingers are mapped next to each other in the somatosensory cortex; the auditory system ...
Mar 19, 2012
5
0
Scents, such as coffee, flowers, or freshly baked pumpkin pie, are created by odor molecules released by various substances and detected by our noses. In essence, we are smelling molecules, the basic unit of a substance that ...
Mar 18, 2024
0
25
Olfactory receptors, present on the surface of sensory neurons in the nasal cavity, recognize odorant molecules and relay this information to the brain. How do these neurons manage to detect a large variability of signals ...
May 30, 2022
0
51
A recent publication in the Journal of Neuroscience by a group of researchers at the University of Kentucky is titled "Encoding the Odor of Cigarette Smoke." Tim McClintock, a physiology professor in the UK College of Medicine, ...
Sep 30, 2020
0
25
If you can tell the difference between a merlot and a cabernet franc just by smell, it's probably all in the timing.
Sep 17, 2018
0
56
Every smell, from a rose to a smoky fire to a pungent fish, is composed of a mixture of odorant molecules that bind to protein receptors inside your nose. But scientists have struggled to understand exactly what makes each ...
Aug 29, 2018
1
34
Nisha Pradhan was seven when she began to suspect she was missing out on something. Her sister seemed to have an uncanny knack for predicting what their mother was making for dinner. Pradhan, meanwhile, never had a clue.
Oct 11, 2017
0
48
According to Gertrude Stein, "A rose is a rose is a rose," but new research indicates that might not be the case when it comes to the rose's scent. Researchers from the Monell Center and collaborating institutions have found ...
Dec 8, 2013
2
0
Researchers at the Monell Center and collaborators have identified a protein that is critical to the ability of mammals to smell. Mice engineered to be lacking the Ggamma13 protein in their olfactory receptors were functionally ...
May 6, 2013
0
0
With mosquito season upon us, people are stocking up on repellents to prevent itchy bites. Bug repellents are important because they don't just protect against the buzzing, blood-sucking little pests—they also safeguard ...
May 11, 2021
0
91
