The sense of smell: reception of flavors

The sensory and hedonic evaluation of most food-related flavors is mainly dependent on olfactory perception. The sense of smell is able to recognize and discriminate myriads of airborne molecules with great accuracy and sensitivity. The primary processes of odor perception are mediated by the chemosensory olfactory neurons in the nasal epithelium, which upon interaction with appropriate odorants elicit a chemo-electrical transduction process converting the chemical signal into electrical impulses. The encoded information is conveyed onto distinct glomeruli, inducing topographic activity patterns in the olfactory bulb. The emerging chemotopic maps are decoded in the olfactory cortex, leading to the perception of distinct flavors.