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Related Concept Videos

Olfaction01:25

Olfaction

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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.
The olfactory receptors are embedded in the cilia of the...
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Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure01:03

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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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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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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 18, 2026

Constructing an Olfactometer for Rodent Olfactory Behavior Studies Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Hyperscanning Study in Psychological Counseling
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Constructing an Olfactometer for Rodent Olfactory Behavior Studies Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Hyperscanning Study in Psychological Counseling

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Trade-off between information format and capacity in the olfactory system.

Zane N Aldworth1, Mark A Stopfer2

  • 1NIH-NICHD, Laboratory of Cellular and Synaptic Physiology, Bethesda, Maryland 20892 zane.aldworth@nih.gov.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
|January 30, 2015
PubMed
Summary

Neural information processing speed is reduced by oscillatory synchrony. Blocking this synchrony in locusts enhanced information transmission rates, revealing a trade-off between neural processing benefits and speed.

Keywords:
information theoryneural codingoscillationssynchrony

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Sensory processing
  • Neural coding

Background:

  • Information format changes as sensory data moves through the nervous system.
  • Neuronal activity patterns, including correlated activity and oscillations, influence information processing.
  • Understanding these transformations is key to deciphering neural communication.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how changes in information format impact neuronal representation capacity.
  • To quantify the effect of correlated neuronal activity on information transmission rates.
  • To explore the trade-offs between neural synchrony and information processing speed.

Main Methods:

  • Measured information transmission rates in olfactory neurons of intact, awake locusts (Schistocerca americana).
  • Pharmacologically manipulated patterns of correlated neuronal activity.
  • Focused on blocking periodic inhibition that underlies odor-elicited neural oscillatory synchronization.

Main Results:

  • Blocking periodic inhibition increased information transmission rates.
  • Neural oscillatory synchronization was found to impede the speed of information transmission.
  • A cost associated with oscillatory synchrony in terms of transmission speed was identified.

Conclusions:

  • Neural oscillatory synchrony, while serving other functions, incurs a cost to the speed of neural information transmission.
  • This study demonstrates a trade-off between the benefits and costs in neural information processing.
  • Findings contribute to understanding how neural circuits balance different processing demands.