The Science of Smelling
Why Can we Smell?
Smell is often our first response to stimuli. It alerts us to fire before we see flames. It makes us recoil before we taste rotten food. It attracts or repels us to everything.
But although smell is a basic sense, and the first we develop, it’s still at the forefront of neurological research. Scientists are still exploring how, precisely, we pick up odorants, process them and interpret them as smells.
So How does it Work?
Smell is made up of molecules and is chemically detected by sensory cells in the nose called chemoreceptors. When an smell stimulates the chemoreceptors in the nose, they pass on electrical impulses to the brain. The brain then interprets patterns in electrical activity as specific odors and olfactory sensation becomes perception something we can recognize as smell.
Smell and Emotion
But smell, more so than any other sense, is also intimately linked to the parts of the brain that process emotion and associative learning. The olfactory bulb in the brain, which sorts sensation into perception, is part of the limbic system – vital to our behavior, mood and memory. This link to brain’s emotional center makes smell a fascinating frontier in neuroscience, behavioral science and advertising.
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