PSYC 271 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Fusiform Face Area, Lateral Sulcus, Procedural Memory
28 Feb 2017
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Week 8 lecture 1: perception: smell, taste & attention. Among our other perceptual abilities, humans also have the ability to detect chemicals via smell and taste. Being able to detect chemicals is hugely adaptive; it can help detect danger (poisonous things usually taste/smell bad), find food (food smells good usually), and find mating partners (through pheromones) Pheromones are chemicals that influence that behavior of co-specifics (members of the same species). Changes in olfactory sensitivity across the menstrual cycle. Sex identification by smell (especially by women) Men can identify a woman"s menstrual stage by smell. Humans have 350 different types of olfactory receptors, each responsible for detecting a different chemical, each having its own special receptor protein. Rodents have around 1000 different types eg. they are able to detect fear from smell (as can bears and other scary things!!!!!) Chemotopic mapping = receptors of the same type project to the same area of the olfactory bulb.
