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:
“Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides States and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)