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Current Opinion in Insect Science Apr 2023The focus of bee neuroscience has for a long time been on only a handful of social honeybee and bumblebee species, out of thousands of bees species that have been... (Review)
Review
The focus of bee neuroscience has for a long time been on only a handful of social honeybee and bumblebee species, out of thousands of bees species that have been described. On the other hand, information about the chemical ecology of bees is much more abundant. Here we attempted to compile the scarce information about olfactory systems of bees across species. We also review the major categories of intra- and inter-specific olfactory behaviors of bees, with specific focus on recent literature. We finish by discussing the most promising avenues for bee olfactory research in the near future.
Topics: Animals; Bees; Smell
PubMed: 36842606
DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2023.101018 -
Genes Jun 2020The senses dictate how the brain represents the environment, and this representation is the basis of how we act in the world [...].
The senses dictate how the brain represents the environment, and this representation is the basis of how we act in the world [...].
Topics: Brain; Humans; Sensation; Smell
PubMed: 32549403
DOI: 10.3390/genes11060654 -
Science Advances May 2024The world is undergoing massive atmospheric and ecological change, driving unprecedented challenges to human well-being. Olfaction is a key sensory system through which... (Review)
Review
The world is undergoing massive atmospheric and ecological change, driving unprecedented challenges to human well-being. Olfaction is a key sensory system through which these impacts occur. The sense of smell influences quality of and satisfaction with life, emotion, emotion regulation, cognitive function, social interactions, dietary choices, stress, and depressive symptoms. Exposures via the olfactory pathway can also lead to (anti-)inflammatory outcomes. Increased understanding is needed regarding the ways in which odorants generated by nature (i.e., natural olfactory environments) affect human well-being. With perspectives from a range of health, social, and natural sciences, we provide an overview of this unique sensory system, four consensus statements regarding olfaction and the environment, and a conceptual framework that integrates the olfactory pathway into an understanding of the effects of natural environments on human well-being. We then discuss how this framework can contribute to better accounting of the impacts of policy and land-use decision-making on natural olfactory environments and, in turn, on planetary health.
Topics: Humans; Smell; Olfactory Pathways; Odorants; Nature; Environment
PubMed: 38748806
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn3028 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... Oct 2018Localizing the sources of stimuli is essential. Most organisms cannot eat, mate, or escape without knowing where the relevant stimuli originate. For many, if not most,... (Review)
Review
Localizing the sources of stimuli is essential. Most organisms cannot eat, mate, or escape without knowing where the relevant stimuli originate. For many, if not most, animals, olfaction plays an essential role in search. While microorganismal chemotaxis is relatively well understood, in larger animals the algorithms and mechanisms of olfactory search remain mysterious. In this symposium, we will present recent advances in our understanding of olfactory search in flies and rodents. Despite their different sizes and behaviors, both species must solve similar problems, including meeting the challenges of turbulent airflow, sampling the environment to optimize olfactory information, and incorporating odor information into broader navigational systems.
Topics: Algorithms; Animals; Environment; Humans; Memory; Odorants; Smell; Species Specificity
PubMed: 30381430
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1668-18.2018 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... Nov 2023Smell loss has caught public attention during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Research on olfactory function in health and disease gains new momentum. Smell deficits have... (Review)
Review
Smell loss has caught public attention during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Research on olfactory function in health and disease gains new momentum. Smell deficits have long been recognized as an early clinical sign associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. Here we review research on the associations between olfactory deficits and neuropathological conditions, focusing on recent progress in four areas: (1) human clinical studies of the correlations between smell deficits and neuropsychiatric disorders; (2) development of olfactory mucosa-derived tissue and cell models for studying the molecular pathologic mechanisms; (3) recent findings in brain imaging studies of structural and functional connectivity changes in olfactory pathways in neuropsychiatric disorders; and (4) application of preclinical animal models to validate and extend the findings from human subjects. Together, these studies have provided strong evidence of the link between the olfactory system and neuropsychiatric disorders, highlighting the relevance of deepening our understanding of the role of the olfactory system in pathophysiological processes. Following the lead of studies reviewed here, future research in this field may open the door to the early detection of neuropsychiatric disorders, personalized treatment approaches, and potential therapeutic interventions through nasal administration techniques, such as nasal brush or nasal spray.
Topics: Humans; Smell; Olfaction Disorders; Pandemics; COVID-19; Olfactory Mucosa
PubMed: 37940584
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1380-23.2023 -
Military Medical Research 2017Olfaction is one of our 5 main qualitative sensory abilities. In this review, we have examined the physiology of olfaction from the olfactory receptor to the brain.... (Review)
Review
Olfaction is one of our 5 main qualitative sensory abilities. In this review, we have examined the physiology of olfaction from the olfactory receptor to the brain. Through analyzing the physiology of olfaction, we have found that the biochemistry of olfactory nerve stimulation is unique from that of other similar pathways. Upon receiving large amounts of input from the olfactory nerve, the olfactory bulb, followed by several layers of centrifugal and centripetal processing in the brain, has to sort the information from the input as well as integrate it with other inputs from the brain to develop a coherent understanding of the input. We then examined the implications of olfaction in the military, the practical applications of electronic noses and problems associated with injury to olfaction that could affect compensation and combat worthiness of a soldier following injury. In the military, olfaction can allow the army to perform at its best through 4 main methods, namely ensuring olfaction is consistent with other dimensions of perception (ensuring optimal olfaction ability in all soldiers in combat), understanding the impact of different common combat environments on the sense of smell, utilizing odor as a defense mechanism and using olfactory aids when necessary. Electronic noses are olfactory aids that have a large potential in the military ranging from saving lives through the detection of explosives to potential methods for improving combustion efficiency. There are several problems associated with injury to olfaction that should be considered when deciding on compensation and combat worthiness of the soldier following an injury.
Topics: Environmental Monitoring; Humans; Military Personnel; Odorants; Perception; Receptors, Odorant; Smell
PubMed: 28344819
DOI: 10.1186/s40779-017-0119-4 -
Neuron Oct 2020In this issue, Gill et al. apply holographic optogenetic stimulation in the olfactory bulb to control select neuronal ensembles in 3D. This approach allows them to...
In this issue, Gill et al. apply holographic optogenetic stimulation in the olfactory bulb to control select neuronal ensembles in 3D. This approach allows them to dissociate the contribution of temporal spike features and spike rate to stimulus detection.
Topics: Neurons; Olfactory Bulb; Optogenetics; Smell; Time
PubMed: 33120020
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.10.007 -
Current Allergy and Asthma Reports May 2004Olfactory disorders can cause serious consequences from the inability to detect many olfactory warning signals (eg, smoke, spoiled food, and gas leaks) and can... (Review)
Review
Olfactory disorders can cause serious consequences from the inability to detect many olfactory warning signals (eg, smoke, spoiled food, and gas leaks) and can significantly impact nutritional status, eating satisfaction, and many other issues related to quality of life. More than 200,000 people a year seek treatment for impaired olfactory ability, and available evidence suggests this figure is a significant underestimate of those affected. Rhinitis and rhinosinusitis are the primary etiologies for olfactory loss or distortion among patients presenting to chemosensory clinics, and they are among the most common chronic medical conditions in the United States, affecting an estimated 33 million people. Both allergic and nonallergic rhinitis/rhinosinusitis can result in diminished, distorted, or absent olfactory ability. Current therapies are only partially or transiently effective in reversing olfactory loss. The underlying mechanisms by which rhinitis/rhinosinusitis impact olfactory ability are likely to be multifactorial and might include altered air flow and odor deposition, changes in mucus composition, and effects of inflammatory mediators on receptor cell differentiation, maturation, or function.
Topics: Humans; Olfaction Disorders; Rhinitis; Signal Transduction; Sinusitis; Smell
PubMed: 15056406
DOI: 10.1007/s11882-004-0031-3 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Oct 2020Rapid, real-time, and non-invasive identification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and gases is an increasingly relevant field, with applications in areas such as... (Review)
Review
Rapid, real-time, and non-invasive identification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and gases is an increasingly relevant field, with applications in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, or industry. Ideal characteristics of VOC and gas sensing devices used for artificial olfaction include portability and affordability, low power consumption, fast response, high selectivity, and sensitivity. Microfluidics meets all these requirements and allows for operation and small sample amounts, providing many advantages compared to conventional methods using sophisticated apparatus such as gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. This review covers the work accomplished so far regarding microfluidic devices for gas sensing and artificial olfaction. Systems utilizing electrical and optical transduction, as well as several system designs engineered throughout the years are summarized, and future perspectives in the field are discussed.
Topics: Gases; Mass Spectrometry; Microfluidics; Smell; Volatile Organic Compounds
PubMed: 33050311
DOI: 10.3390/s20205742 -
ELife May 2023Hearing and vision sensory systems are tuned to the natural statistics of acoustic and electromagnetic energy on earth and are evolved to be sensitive in ethologically...
Hearing and vision sensory systems are tuned to the natural statistics of acoustic and electromagnetic energy on earth and are evolved to be sensitive in ethologically relevant ranges. But what are the natural statistics of , and how do olfactory systems exploit them? Dissecting an accurate machine learning model (Lee et al., 2022) for human odor perception, we find a computable representation for odor at the molecular level that can predict the odor-evoked receptor, neural, and behavioral responses of nearly all terrestrial organisms studied in olfactory neuroscience. Using this olfactory representation (principal odor map [POM]), we find that odorous compounds with similar POM representations are more likely to co-occur within a substance and be metabolically closely related; metabolic reaction sequences (Caspi et al., 2014) also follow smooth paths in POM despite large jumps in molecular structure. Just as the brain's visual representations have evolved around the natural statistics of light and shapes, the natural statistics of metabolism appear to shape the brain's representation of the olfactory world.
Topics: Humans; Olfactory Perception; Olfactory Pathways; Smell; Odorants; Receptors, Odorant
PubMed: 37129358
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.82502