PSY 100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Cribriform Plate, Taste Receptor, Anosmia
Document Summary
Possible to group the two most underappreciated senses into the broad category of chemical senses. All olfaction (smell) and gustation (taste) demand that chemical stimuli be converted into electrical potential. These senses are underappreciated because if they were forced to give up a feeling, most people would abandon either of these. The receptors involved in our experience of both smell and taste, unlike any of the other senses, attach directly to the stimuli they transduce. Odorants bind to olfactory receptors located in the olfactory epithelium in our body, very often mixtures of these. It is assumed that the binding of odorants to receptors is similar to the way a lock and key works, with various odorants binding to specific unique receptors depending on their shape. Nevertheless, the form theory of olfaction is not universally accepted and alternative hypotheses exist, including one that suggests that their subjective smells correspond to the vibrations of odorant molecules (turin, 1996).
