Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway01:20

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway

12.0K
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...
12.0K
Olfaction01:25

Olfaction

47.9K
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...
47.9K
Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure01:03

Olfactory Receptors: Location and Structure

11.1K
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...
11.1K
Introduction to Special Senses01:26

Introduction to Special Senses

7.2K
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...
7.2K
Tactile and Chemical Senses01:27

Tactile and Chemical Senses

656
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.
656
Taste Buds and Receptors01:20

Taste Buds and Receptors

4.5K
Gustation, or the sense of taste, is intrinsically linked to the anatomical structures located on the tongue. This organ's surface, along with the entirety of the oral cavity, is adorned with stratified squamous epithelium. Evident on the tongue are elevated structures known as papillae (singular = papilla), which house the mechanisms for the transduction of gustatory stimuli. Four distinct types of papillae exist, each identified by their unique morphological attributes: the circumvallate,...
4.5K

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

Associations between white matter micro- and macro-structure and attention in 6-7-year-old children with low to moderate prenatal alcohol exposure.

Brain imaging and behavior·2026
Same author

Timing Is Everything: How Subtle Timing Changes in MRI Echo Planar Imaging Can Significantly Alter Mechanical Vibrations and Sound Level.

Magnetic resonance in medicine·2026
Same author

Prefrontal inhibitory mechanisms associated with Putamen activity during valence learning revealed by multimodal fMRI-fMRS.

Communications biology·2025
Same author

Timing is everything: How subtle timing changes in MRI echo planar imaging can significantly alter mechanical vibrations and sound level.

ArXiv·2025
Same author

Humans have nasal respiratory fingerprints.

Current biology : CB·2025
Same author

Discriminating Parkinson's disease patients from healthy controls using nasal respiratory airflow.

Communications medicine·2024
Same journal

Dynamic coordination and segregation mechanisms in higher cortex for parallel task processing.

Neuron·2026
Same journal

Higher-order thalamic bursts are drivers of attention control.

Neuron·2026
Same journal

Composing trajectories for rapid inference of navigational goals.

Neuron·2026
Same journal

Peri-head distance coding in the mouse brainstem.

Neuron·2026
Same journal

A two-timepoint framework for sensitive and specific single-cell activity screening.

Neuron·2026
Same journal

From first impressions to bonds: The neural dynamics of social relationships.

Neuron·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 4, 2026

Ex Vivo Preparations of the Intact Vomeronasal Organ and Accessory Olfactory Bulb
08:59

Ex Vivo Preparations of the Intact Vomeronasal Organ and Accessory Olfactory Bulb

Published on: August 4, 2014

11.3K

Human Olfaction without Apparent Olfactory Bulbs.

Tali Weiss1, Timna Soroka1, Lior Gorodisky1

  • 1The Azrieli National Institute for Human Brain Imaging and Research, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel; Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

Neuron
|November 11, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Humans can smell without olfactory bulbs (OBs), challenging the necessity of these brain structures for basic olfaction. This suggests remarkable brain plasticity in olfactory processing.

Keywords:
anosmiabrain plasticityfunctional brain imagingleft-handednessodor codingolfactionolfactory bulbolfactory perceptionstructural brain imaging

More Related Videos

In-depth Physiological Analysis of Defined Cell Populations in Acute Tissue Slices of the Mouse Vomeronasal Organ
10:11

In-depth Physiological Analysis of Defined Cell Populations in Acute Tissue Slices of the Mouse Vomeronasal Organ

Published on: September 10, 2016

8.0K
A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function
10:42

A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function

Published on: July 30, 2017

10.0K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 4, 2026

Ex Vivo Preparations of the Intact Vomeronasal Organ and Accessory Olfactory Bulb
08:59

Ex Vivo Preparations of the Intact Vomeronasal Organ and Accessory Olfactory Bulb

Published on: August 4, 2014

11.3K
In-depth Physiological Analysis of Defined Cell Populations in Acute Tissue Slices of the Mouse Vomeronasal Organ
10:11

In-depth Physiological Analysis of Defined Cell Populations in Acute Tissue Slices of the Mouse Vomeronasal Organ

Published on: September 10, 2016

8.0K
A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function
10:42

A Free-breathing fMRI Method to Study Human Olfactory Function

Published on: July 30, 2017

10.0K

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Sensory Systems Biology

Background:

  • Olfactory bulbs (OBs) are crucial for initial odor processing and spatiotemporal coding in mammals.
  • Their unique structure is traditionally considered essential for smell representation.

Observation:

  • Two healthy, left-handed women were found to have no apparent OBs via MRI.
  • Despite the absence of OBs, they exhibited normal olfactory awareness, detection, discrimination, identification, and representation.

Findings:

  • Functional MRI showed odorant-induced activity in the piriform cortex, the primary OB target, comparable to controls.
  • A database review revealed individuals (0.6% of women, 4.25% of left-handed women) with olfaction but no anatomically defined OBs.

Implications:

  • Basic olfactory functions can be performed without canonical olfactory bulbs.
  • This highlights significant functional neuroanatomical plasticity in the human olfactory system.