Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Olfaction

Olfaction

The sense of smell is achieved through the activities of the olfactory system. It starts when an airborne odorant enters the nasal cavity and reaches olfactory epithelium (OE). The OE is protected by a thin layer of mucus, which also serves the purpose of dissolving more complex compounds into simpler chemical odorants. The size of the OE and the density of sensory neurons varies among species; in humans, the OE is only about 9-10 cm2.
The olfactory receptors are embedded in the cilia of the...

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway

Humans detect odors with the help of specialized cells located in the upper part of the nasal cavity, called olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). ORNs possess hair-like structures called cilia, which are receptive to sensations from the inhaled air. When an odorant molecule binds to a specific receptor on the cell of the cilia, it leads to a series of events that ultimately cause the ORN to send electrical signals to the olfactory bulb in the brain through the olfactory nerves.
The olfactory...

Tactile and Chemical Senses

Tactile and Chemical Senses

Tactile senses encompass touch, temperature, and pain, each mediated by specific receptors. Touch receptors detect mechanical energy or pressure against the skin. Sensory fibers from these receptors enter the spinal cord and relay information to the brain stem. Here, most fibers cross over to the opposite side of the brain. The touch information then moves to the thalamus, which projects a map of the body's surface onto the somatosensory areas of the parietal lobes in the cerebral cortex. This...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

A topographical organization in the primary olfactory cortex.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Clinical Manifestations.

Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association·2025

Same author

Clinical Manifestations.

Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association·2025

Same author

Disentanglement of prosodic meaning: Toward a framework for the analysis of nonverbal information in speech.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025

Same author

Anterior olfactory nucleus mediates parallel inter-bulbar pathways in rodents.

BMC biology·2025

Same author

Humans have nasal respiratory fingerprints.

Current biology : CB·2025

Same journal

Cichlid fish as a model for understanding social dysfunction.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

Same journal

On aims and methods in field neuroethology: Investigating neural mechanisms of behavior in semi-natural and natural contexts.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

Same journal

Neurobiological interfaces connecting environmental change to monarch butterfly migration.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

Same journal

Learning how to experience the world: From circuits to cell types to genes.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

Same journal

Editorial overview for neurobiology of disease 2026.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

Same journal

Optical voltage imaging: ready to spark systems neuroscience.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 20, 2026

High-resolution Measurement of Odor-Driven Behavior in Drosophila Larvae

High-resolution Measurement of Odor-Driven Behavior in Drosophila Larvae

Published on: January 4, 2008

Measuring smells.

Rafi Haddad¹, Hadas Lapid, David Harel

¹Department of Neurobiology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. rhaddad@weizmann.ac.il

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

|October 1, 2008

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Understanding smell requires metrics for odor molecules. This study reviews existing metrics and proposes new ones for the physical space of odorants, crucial for olfactory neurobiology research.

More Related Videos

Vertical T-maze Choice Assay for Arthropod Response to Odorants

Vertical T-maze Choice Assay for Arthropod Response to Odorants

Published on: February 14, 2013

A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function

A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function

Published on: July 30, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 20, 2026

High-resolution Measurement of Odor-Driven Behavior in Drosophila Larvae

High-resolution Measurement of Odor-Driven Behavior in Drosophila Larvae

Published on: January 4, 2008

Vertical T-maze Choice Assay for Arthropod Response to Odorants

Vertical T-maze Choice Assay for Arthropod Response to Odorants

Published on: February 14, 2013

A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function

A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function

Published on: July 30, 2017

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Chemosensation
Sensory Perception

Background:

Olfaction involves transforming odorant molecules into neural and perceptual signals.
Understanding these transforms requires valid metrics for physical, neural, and perceptual spaces.
Current understanding of olfactory neurobiology is hindered by a lack of agreed-upon odor metrics.

Purpose of the Study:

To review existing metrics for the perceptual and neural spaces of olfaction.
To critically examine the physical space of odorant molecules and its associated metrics.
To propose novel odor metrics to advance the study of olfactory neurobiology.

Main Methods:

Literature review of perceptual and neural space metrics in olfaction.
Analysis of challenges in defining a metric for the physical space of odorants.
Development and proposal of two alternative odor metrics.

Main Results:

Established the necessity of valid metrics across all three spaces of olfaction.
Identified the lack of a standardized odor metric in the physical space as a key research barrier.
Proposed two distinct, quantifiable odor metrics for the physical space of odorants.

Conclusions:

A robust metric for the physical space of odorant molecules is essential for olfactory research.
The proposed alternative odor metrics offer potential solutions to current measurement challenges.
Advancing olfactory neurobiology necessitates the adoption and validation of new odor metrics.