Olfactory Perception
Olfaction is the sense of smell. Humans and most other land mammals have receptors in the nasal chambers that detect molecules coming into the nose and send signals to the brain. The main component of the olfactory system is the olfactory cranial nerve, or CN I. CN I is responsible for interpreting typical odor sensations and has a large impact on our sense of taste. The upper portion of the nasal chambers contain the sensory receptors responsible for olfaction, and are situated in a neuroepithelium which lines the cribriform plate. Once the cells in the neuroepithelium detect a stimulus, a signal is sent up the cranial nerve and travels to the olfactory bulbs in the brain where the initial processing of olfactory information occurs. The rest of the olfactory processing is done in the rest of the olfactory cortex.
Read more about this topic: Phantosmia
Famous quotes containing the word perception:
“The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”
—John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)