THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
NDOLA CAMPUS

PHYSIOLOGY(MBS310) ASSIGNMENT
TOPIC: NERVOUS SYSTEM: SPECIAL SENSES (OLFACTION)
GROUP 27

LECTURER: DR.MUSHABATI.
CLASS: 3rd year (2016-2017 academic year)
QUESTION

Humans can discriminate between many different odors. What are the
mechanisms that make this possible? Discuss the relationship between
olfaction and sexual behavior.

GROUP MEMBERS:

SAKANYA KUKENG’A 15010155

SAMPA LLOYD 14327029

SAULO GERSHOM 14259552

SAYELA MICHELO 14004868

SIAME JOSEPH 14366281

SIAMUZYULU MUTINTA 14471870

THE OlFACTORY SYSTEM

The olfactory system is an essential part of human physiology. Though humans are less
dependent on chemosensory input (Nimura, 2009), olfactory function still plays a critical role in
health and behavior. The system has received considerable attention in recent years because of
the intriguing biologic question of how a simple sense organ such as the olfactory epithelium and
its brain representation, which apparently lacks a high degree of complexity, can mediate
discrimination of more than 10,000 different odors. The prominent connection between odor and
sex among diverse historical periods and cultural implies a high level of evolutionary
importance. Freud (1886) suggested that odors are such strong inducers of sexual feeling that
repression of smell sensation is necessary to civilization.

Mechanisms of odor discrimination

The steps in olfactory transduction are as illustrated at length in the previous diagram.
Transduction in the olfactory system is the conversion of a chemical signal into an electrical
signal that can be transmitted to the CNS.

The mechanism of smell begins, from the olfactory receptors that are found in the nasal cavity.
The receptors are actually bipolar nerve cells that are from the central nervous system. The
mucosal end of these receptors forms cilia that are embedded in the mucus that is secreted by the
bowman’s glands. These cilia function by detection of olfactory odor. When odor particles reach
the nasal cavity, they diffuse through the mucus membrane and bind to the receptor protein that
is found in the cilia. The inner surface of the receptor protein has got the G-protein that has 3
subunits. Binding of the odor particle on the receptor activates the G-protein and the alpha
subunit breaks away and hence activating the enzyme adenylyl cyclase. This enzyme catalyzes
the conversion of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) to cAMP (cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate).
The presence of the cAMP activates the protein channel called the sodium gated channel, which
then opens and causes the influx of sodium. This influx of sodium makes inner surface of the cell
more positive, a threshold is reached and then an action potential is generated.

The action potential that is generated is then transmitted to the olfactory bulb to the CNS. The
olfactory bulb lies on the cribriform plate that separates the brain from the nasal cavity. The
cribriform plate also has perforations that allow the passage of the sensory olfactory nerves
(cranial nerve 1) to the brain cortex. The axons from the sensory olfactory neurons terminate are
dendrites of the mitral cells and the tufted cells that are found in the olfactory bulb glomeruli.
From the mitral and tufted cells, the axons then leave posteriorly through the lateral olfactory
stria and terminate in the olfactory cortex that is composed of 5 regions for interpretation of
smell. The 5 regions are the anterior olfactory nucleus, olfactory tubercle, piriform cortex,
amygdala and entorhinal cortex. The amygdala is functions mainly sense of smell in relation to
emotional response and the entorhinal is in charge of olfactory memory. In addition, information
also travels to the frontal cortex to the thalamus to the orbital frontal cortex for conscious
discrimination of odors. This sensation is however asymmetric in that it discrimination is higher
on the right than on the left side.

Olfaction and sexual behavior

Anatomy brings out the link between smell and sex, the area of the brain through which we
experience smell, the olfactory lobe, is part of the limbic system ,the emotional brain, the area
through which sexual thought and desires are derived. In other mammals the nasal patch of
olfactory epithelium that carries out this function is located in the nasal septum and is known as
the vomeronasal organ. In humans, this organ is not well developed but there appears to be a
homologous structure to the vomeronasal organ that performs this function. Pheromones are
volatile compounds that are secreted into the environment by one individual of a species,
perceived by another individual of the same species in whom it elicits a behavioral response or
physiological change. Through the hypothalamus and its connections the pheromones influence
both sexual behavior and reproductive function.

To conclude there are three mechanisms which make discrimination between different odors
possible: the ability of a single receptor to recognize multiple odorants, multiple receptors
recognizing a single odorant and the different odorants being recognized by a distinct
combination of receptors. Also, there is a close relationship between olfaction and sexual
behavior that has been attributed to the homologous structure of the vomeronasal organ which
deals with the perception of pheromones and thus eliciting a behavioral response.
REFERECES

Barrett, K.E., Barman, S.M., Boitano, S. and Brooks, H.L., Ganong’s review of medical
physiology, ed 23, New York, 2009.
FREUD, S., 1956. Report on my studies in Paris and Berlin (1886). The International Journal of
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Guyton, A.C. and John, E., Hall.(2006). Textbook of medical physiology, 11.
Hirsch, A. and Gruss, J., 1999. Human male sexual response to olfactory stimuli. J Neurol
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Patel, R.M. and Pinto, J.M., 2014. Olfaction: anatomy, physiology, and disease. Clinical
Anatomy, 27(1), pp.54-60.
Savic, I., Berglund, H., Gulyas, B. and Roland, P., 2001. Smelling of odorous sex hormone-like
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