Latest Olfactory system Stories
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Dogs can hear sounds at higher frequencies. Bats can ‘see’ with sonar although their eyes are practically useless. And, apparently, the mouse can smell a predator’s urine from a mile away. Each of these traits has played an important role in the evolution of each animal. But what is especially amazing with regard to mice and their olfactory receptors is their ability to sense a threat may be determined by only one gene,...
Following an article about new research claiming to discover that some internal organs may be able to smell and drink foods, Yumi Media releases a statement. Bohemia, NY (PRWEB) April 09, 2013 On April 9, Yumi Media, a food website devoted to delivering the latest and greatest in food news, recipes, and products to incorporate into your own healthy lifestyle, responds to an article published on Discovery News by Jennifer Viegas, which goes over how certain internal organs may be able to...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Biologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have identified the origin of olfactory nerve cells, finding that neural-crest stem cells – multipotent, migratory cells unique to vertebrates that give rise to many structures in the body – play a key role in building olfactory sensory neurons in the nose. When human noses detect a scent, two types of sensory neurons are at work. These neurons are particularly...
Study highlights brain changes that may underlie transition from aggressive to parental behavior Sexually naïve male mice respond differently to the chemical signals emitted by newborn pups than males that have mated and lived with pregnant females, according to a study published March 20 in The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings may help scientists to better understand the changes that take place in the brains of some mammals during the transition into parenthood. Sex differences...
Insect odorant receptors regulate their own sensitivity. Highly developed antennae containing different types of olfactory receptors allow insects to use minute amounts of odors for orientation towards resources like food, oviposition sites or mates. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now used mutant flies and for the first time provided experimental proof that the extremely sensitive olfactory system of fruit flies − they are able to...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The majority of the scientific community has embraced the idea of different smells being based on the olfactory receptors’ ability to detect various shapes of odor molecules. However, a new study in the open access journal PLOS ONE has given credence to a less popular theory; that the sense of smell is based on the molecules’ different vibrations, not their shapes. The idea of a quantum, or vibration, basis for olfactory was...
NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- For close to two years now, scientists Jay Parrish and Jeff Riffell have devoted themselves to what many might consider an unusual endeavor--seeking to "mislead" mosquitos by effectively "rewiring" their brains. The two biologists, working at the University of Washington, have spent months studying the olfactory system of the mosquito, seeking ways to rewrite the behavioral patterns of the bloodsucking insects. The efforts of these two...
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Science is a magnificent thing and yet, there is still so much we don’t yet understand. For instance, scientists are still working to fully understand the part of our body that resides right in front of our face. More than 100 years ago, scientists discovered a mechanism that provides feedback from our nose to our brain. Though these scientists discovered this mechanism, they weren’t yet able to fully understand how it works to...
[ Watch the Video: Flies Sniff Out and Avoid Spoiled Food ] April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Eating spoiled food can be fatal as it allows bacterial pathogens to enter the digestive system. One of the main tasks of the sense of smell is to detect signs of decay, allowing us and other animals to avoid such food poisoning. A new study, conducted by behavioral scientists and neurobiologists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, has decoded the neural...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Specific patterns in the nasal passageway that determine which olfactory neurons are associated with which particular odors have remained a mystery for scientists. The human nose has millions of these olfactory neurons grouped into hundreds of different neuron types. And each of these neuron types expresses only one odorant receptor in one region of the brain, allowing that specific odor to be sensed. Now, researchers from UC...
