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Related Concept Videos

Olfaction01:25

Olfaction

40.5K
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...
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Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway01:20

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway

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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...
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Perception01:28

Perception

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Perception is a fundamental psychological process that enables individuals to organize, interpret, and consciously experience sensory information. This process is crucial for understanding and interacting with the world around us. It includes both bottom-up and top-down processing, each playing a distinct role in how we perceive our environment.
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...
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Factors Affecting Perception01:25

Factors Affecting Perception

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Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...
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Gestalt Principles of Perception01:21

Gestalt Principles of Perception

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Gestalt principles provide a framework for understanding how humans perceive objects as unified wholes within their context. These principles are essential in explaining the cognitive processes that make sense of complex visual stimuli by organizing them into coherent groups. One fundamental principle is proximity, which posits that objects located close to each other are perceived as a collective group. For instance, when dots are positioned near one another, the visual system interprets them...
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Introduction to Special Senses01:26

Introduction to Special Senses

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Sensory receptors play an integral part in comprehending our external and internal environments. They receive diverse stimuli, converting them into the nervous system's electrochemical signals. This conversion occurs as the stimulus alters the sensory neuron's cell membrane potential, instigating the generation of an action potential. This action potential is subsequently transmitted to the central nervous system (CNS), which integrates with other sensory data or higher cognitive...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 30, 2026

Constructing an Olfactometer for Rodent Olfactory Behavior Studies Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Hyperscanning Study in Psychological Counseling
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Olfaction, valuation, and action: reorienting perception.

Jason B Castro1, William P Seeley2

  • 1Psychology and Neuroscience, Bates College Lewiston, ME, USA.

Frontiers in Psychology
|May 1, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Olfaction

Keywords:
affective neurosciencecategorical perceptionhedonic valenceobject perceptionolfactory bulb modelpiriform cortexvalue encoding

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Sensory Perception

Background:

  • Olfaction presents unique challenges in defining its referents and phenomenological content within the philosophy of perception.
  • Existing models struggle to adequately explain the subjective experience of odors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a novel framework for understanding olfaction by conceptualizing odors as object-like representations in the brain.
  • To define the basic objects of olfaction based on biological value rather than physicochemical properties.
  • To explore how this organism-centered account can explain the organization of olfactory perception.

Main Methods:

  • Philosophical analysis of existing theories in the philosophy of perception.
  • Postulation of an object-based representational model for olfactory stimuli.
  • Theoretical exploration of affective dimensions organizing olfactory experience.

Main Results:

  • Suggests that odors are represented as objects in the brain.
  • Proposes that biological value, not physicochemical properties, defines olfactory objects.
  • Hypothesizes that olfactory experience is organized by coarse affective dimensions.

Conclusions:

  • An organism-centered, object-representation approach resolves key difficulties in understanding olfaction.
  • Categorical affective dimensions may organize olfactory space, aiding decision-making and action.
  • This framework offers a new perspective on the complex, high-dimensional nature of olfactory stimuli.