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Related Concept Videos

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.
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Olfaction01:25

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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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Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure01:03

Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure

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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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The Olfactory System as a Model to Study Axonal Growth Patterns and Morphology In Vivo
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Modeling olfactory bulb evolution through primate phylogeny.

Steven Heritage1

  • 1Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America.

Plos One
|November 27, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Primate olfactory sensitivity did not uniformly decrease. Instead, olfactory bulb volume analysis reveals a derived reduction in haplorhines and an increase in strepsirrhines, challenging prior evolutionary assumptions.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Comparative genomics
  • Primate evolution

Background:

  • Primate adaptive characterizations often assume reduced olfactory sensitivity.
  • This assumption relies on comparisons to non-primate mammals, potentially misrepresenting ancestral states.
  • The directionality of olfactory evolution in primates requires re-evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To reconstruct olfactory bulb volumes for ancestral primate and mammal outgroup nodes.
  • To investigate the evolutionary trajectory of olfactory sensitivity within primates.
  • To test the hypothesis of a general olfactory reduction in primate evolution.

Main Methods:

  • Phylogenetic modeling of continuous trait evolution.
  • Reconstruction of olfactory bulb volumes using ancestral state estimation.
  • Comparative analysis of olfactory bulb size across primate lineages and mammal outgroups.

Main Results:

  • The crown-primate node is plesiomorphic relative to the ancestral euarchontan.
  • Derived reduction in olfactory sensitivity is specific to the haplorhine lineage.
  • A derived increase in olfactory sensitivity was observed at the strepsirrhine node.

Conclusions:

  • Primate olfactory evolution is characterized by oppositional diversification, not graded reduction.
  • Haplorhine and strepsirrhine lineages show divergent olfactory trajectories from a common ancestor.
  • Rethinking primate evolution requires moving beyond simplistic assumptions of olfactory decline.