The secret of ... the nose

A new study shows that millions of intracellular receptors are not randomly scattered, but the distribution has rules. These receptors are clustered at many 'hot' points that help the brain distinguish different odors.

To perform the experiment, the scientists stuck the poles on the participant's nose, letting them smell different odors and measuring the vibrations of the olfactory nerves.

A volunteer is being pinned to the nose in the study.

"This new finding shows that olfactory neurons have partially processed scent information before putting it in the brain. It's like a nose," said researcher Don Wilson, of the New York University of Medicine . it's a tiny brain of its own. "

The body that handles scent in the human nose lies above the nasal cavity, about the size of a stamp, and is called the olfactory epithelium.

Previously, through the nasal probe experiments of mice, scientists discovered receptors (hereinafter referred to as receptors) their scents can be grouped into several groups. Similarly on the tongue, the receptors are also arranged in many areas, each area has the task of feeling different tastes, such as sour, sweet, salty .

But the rodent's nose has more than 1,200 types of receptors, and just a tiny probe also stimulates tens of thousands of other receptors, making it difficult to accurately filter signals.

There are about 400 different types of receptors in humans, and it is much easier to attach probes to the experiment.

A team of researchers conducted 80 volunteers to smell many different smells, both fragrant and smelly.

Through a collection of 801 data from these studies, the team found that some areas of the olfactory epithelium were more likely to sense smells than others.

In addition, the researchers also found that some hot spots can distinguish the fragrance and smell.

"Surprisingly, this finding shows that the olfactory epithelium is tuned to know a lot of different information. We have yet to determine what the function of these areas is, but the The results of the study are very interesting. "