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The olfactory system, is the sensory system used for the sense of smell (olfaction). Olfaction is one of the special senses directly associated with specific organs. Most mammals and reptiles have a main olfactory system and an accessory olfactory system. The main olfactory system detects airborne substances, while the accessory system senses ...
The olfactory epithelium is a specialized epithelial tissue inside the nasal cavity that is involved in smell.In humans, it measures 5 cm 2 (0.78 sq in) [1] and lies on the roof of the nasal cavity about 7 cm (2.8 in) above and behind the nostrils. [2]
Smell, or olfaction, is a chemoreception that forms the sense of smell. Olfaction has many purposes, such as the detection of hazards, pheromones, and food. It integrates with other senses to form the sense of flavor. [8] Olfaction occurs when odorants bind to specific sites on olfactory receptors located in the nasal cavity. [9]
The Lady and the Unicorn, a Flemish tapestry depicting the sense of smell, 1484–1500. Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris.. Early scientific study of the sense of smell includes the extensive doctoral dissertation of Eleanor Gamble, published in 1898, which compared olfactory to other stimulus modalities, and implied that smell had a lower intensity discrimination.
The olfactory bulb transmits smell information from the nose to the brain, and is thus necessary for a proper sense of smell. As a neural circuit, the glomerular layer receives direct input from afferent nerves, made up of the axons from approximately ten million olfactory receptor neurons in the olfactory mucosa, a region of the nasal cavity.
Olfactory mucosa lines about 5cm 2 of the posterosuperior parts of the lateral nasal wall. Parts of the nasal cavity lined by olfactory mucosa include: parts of the roof of the nasal cavity, the superior nasal concha and some upper parts of the middle nasal concha, parts of the nasal septum, and the sphenoethmoidal recess.
The vomeronasal organ (VNO), or Jacobson's organ, is the paired auxiliary olfactory (smell) sense organ located in the soft tissue of the nasal septum, in the nasal cavity just above the roof of the mouth (the hard palate) in various tetrapods. [1]
The sense of smell is called olfaction. All materials constantly shed molecules, which float into the nose or are sucked in through breathing. Inside the nasal chambers is the neuroepithelium, a lining deep within the nostrils that contains the receptors responsible for detecting molecules that are small enough to smell. These receptor neurons ...