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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.
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The process of olfaction, also known as the sense of smell, is a sophisticated chemical response system. The specialized sensory neurons that facilitate this process, known as olfactory receptor neurons, are situated in an upper segment of the nasal cavity, known as the olfactory epithelium. Olfactory sensory neurons are bipolar, with their dendrites extending from the epithelium's apex into the mucus that lines the nasal cavity. Airborne molecules, when inhaled, traverse the olfactory...
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Neural circuits and neuronal pools are two of the main structures found in the nervous system. Neural circuits are networks of neurons that work together to carry out a specific task or process. They consist of interconnected neurons and glial cells, which provide structural and metabolic support.
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Updated: May 3, 2026

Quadruple Immunostaining of the Olfactory Bulb for Visualization of Olfactory Sensory Axon Molecular Identity Codes
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Olfactory maps, circuits and computations.

Andrew J Giessel1, Sandeep Robert Datta1

  • 1Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurobiology, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States.

Current Opinion in Neurobiology
|February 5, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Higher olfactory cortex areas, piriform cortex and olfactory tubercle, largely discard spatial odor maps. Instead, they use distributed connections and learning rules to represent smell information for behavior.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Olfactory System Research

Background:

  • Sensory systems like vision and hearing use topographic maps.
  • The olfactory bulb has a spatial map of odor identity, but its use in higher brain areas is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review current research on the anatomy, microcircuitry, and neuromodulation of the piriform cortex and olfactory tubercle.
  • To investigate how these higher olfactory areas represent odor information.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on piriform cortex and olfactory tubercle.
  • Analysis of anatomical connections, local circuitry, and neuromodulatory influences.

Main Results:

  • The piriform cortex uses local networks to represent odor identity.
  • The olfactory tubercle may use reward-based learning for odor valence encoding.
  • Both areas largely abandon bulb topography in favor of distributed processing.

Conclusions:

  • Higher olfactory areas diverge from other sensory systems by not relying on topography.
  • Distributed connectivity, local learning, and neuromodulation are key for olfactory representations.