PSY290H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Ventral Posterior Nucleus, Two-Streams Hypothesis, Posterior Parietal Cortex
Document Summary
Olfaction and gustation are referred to as chemical senses because they monitor the chemical content of the environment. These two functions, smell and taste, function together to produce a sensation called taste. The olfactory receptor cells are in the upper part of the nose, embedded in the olfactory mucosa. Their axons pass through the cribriform plate, and enter the olfactory bulbs, where they synapse onto neurons that project via the olfactory tracts to the brain. In mammals, each olfactory receptor cell contains a receptor protein molecule, which are in the membranes of the dendrites of the olfactory receptor cells. Here they can be stimulated by circulating airborne chemicals in the nasal passages. We don"t know the organization principle of the receptors through the olfactory mucosa. Each odor seems to be encoded by component processing: by the pattern of activity across receptor types. The axons of olfactory receptors terminate in clusters called olfactory glomeruli, which are near the olfactory bulbs.
