While humans are very good at detecting odors, we are not very good at identifying them. Everyone has experienced the “tip-of-the-nose” phenomenon, when we know we’re familiar with an odor, but just can’t remember the name. The sensory impact of an odor (both quality and intensity) can be quite ambiguous, causing us to rely on context to help figure out what we’re smelling.
Odors--whether emanating from a sweet-smelling gardenia or a rank sweat sock--are volatile chemicals that can kill olfactory neurons.
Odor can induce: bad mood, interfere with falling asleep, disturb sleep, induce headache, nausea, fits of coughing, interfere with reading and thinking, interfere with recreation, induce vomiting, and interfere with breathing.
Studies show that familiar odors revive old memories more readily than do familiar sights or sounds.
We smell by a chemical and physiological process. The keys to this process have only recently been discovered. Smells are carried on objects, air, and water. We smell by perceiving certain molecules dissolving onto hair-like cilia receptors that extend down from the olfactory bulb of the brain and into the nasal cavity.
The nose can distinguish more than 10,000 different odors found in nature with only about 1000 different odor nerve receptors available in the nose for that purpose.
We detect odors by using at least a thousand different special genes that are active exclusively in the cells of our odor nerve receptors. These special genes help our odor nerve receptors “paint a picture” for each odor. Any slight change in the molecular “picture” can change a sweet smell into a foul one—and vice versa.
It would be difficult to imagine life without smell. Early experiments by NASA found that the efficiency of astronauts was reduced when confined to the near odor-free environment of a one-person space capsule. Astronauts found a smell-free environment so disturbing that they carried scented chemicals with them to counteract any negative effects of “odor-boredom.” NASA integrates a variety of smells into the air conditioning system of the space shuttle.
E-mail: support@noxoinfo.com
Odors--whether emanating from a sweet-smelling gardenia or a rank sweat sock--are volatile chemicals that can kill olfactory neurons.
Odor can induce: bad mood, interfere with falling asleep, disturb sleep, induce headache, nausea, fits of coughing, interfere with reading and thinking, interfere with recreation, induce vomiting, and interfere with breathing.
Studies show that familiar odors revive old memories more readily than do familiar sights or sounds.
We smell by a chemical and physiological process. The keys to this process have only recently been discovered. Smells are carried on objects, air, and water. We smell by perceiving certain molecules dissolving onto hair-like cilia receptors that extend down from the olfactory bulb of the brain and into the nasal cavity.
The nose can distinguish more than 10,000 different odors found in nature with only about 1000 different odor nerve receptors available in the nose for that purpose.
We detect odors by using at least a thousand different special genes that are active exclusively in the cells of our odor nerve receptors. These special genes help our odor nerve receptors “paint a picture” for each odor. Any slight change in the molecular “picture” can change a sweet smell into a foul one—and vice versa.
It would be difficult to imagine life without smell. Early experiments by NASA found that the efficiency of astronauts was reduced when confined to the near odor-free environment of a one-person space capsule. Astronauts found a smell-free environment so disturbing that they carried scented chemicals with them to counteract any negative effects of “odor-boredom.” NASA integrates a variety of smells into the air conditioning system of the space shuttle.
E-mail: support@noxoinfo.com