Medical research

Nose's response to odors more than just a simple sum of parts

Take a sniff of a freshly poured glass of wine, and the prevailing scientific thinking would suggest that the harmony of fragrances involves sensory receptors in the nose simply adding up the individual odors they encounter. ...

Medical research

New perspectives on sensory mechanisms

The latest Perspectives in General Physiology series examines the mechanisms of visual, aural, olfactory, and tactile processes that inform us about the environment. The series appears in the September 2011 issue of the Journal ...

Neuroscience

From genes to receptors to perception: olfaction unraveled

Several years ago the internet was captivated by the enigma of "the dress—specifically, was the dress black and blue, or was it white and gold? No matter what you saw, the viral debate served to highlight that humans differ ...

Genetics

Gene switch for odorant receptors

The olfactory sensory neurons in the nasal mucosa perceive the myriad smells in the air with the aid of odorant receptors. Each sensory neuron chooses one and only one receptor gene for expression. The probability that a ...

Neuroscience

Sniff tests used to create olfactory fingerprint

(Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers with affiliations to several institutions in Israel has developed a way to test the differences in the way people perceive odors. The differences are enough, the team reports in their ...

Neuroscience

Quantifying how the brain smells

Scientists haven't quite decoded how animals smell, but researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) found that it's different from previously thought.

Neuroscience

Researchers identify receptors activated by odors

A group of physiologists led by University of Kentucky's Tim McClintock have identified the receptors activated by two odors using a new method that tracks responses to smells in live mice.

Genetics

Olfactory neurons adapt to the surrounding environment

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 ...

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