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Olfaction

Olfaction

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...

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway

Physiology of Smell and Olfactory Pathway

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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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 5, 2026

High-resolution Measurement of Odor-Driven Behavior in Drosophila Larvae

High-resolution Measurement of Odor-Driven Behavior in Drosophila Larvae

Published on: January 3, 2008

Dexterous single sniffs for ethological active olfaction

Mang Gao¹, John M Barrett¹, Rita Fischer¹

¹Department of Neuroscience, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.

Science Advances

|July 3, 2026

Summary

No abstract available in PubMed .

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