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What is the adaptive significance or survival value of having thousands of different olfactory receptors and only 5 different types of taste receptors?
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
You have to smell the different types of smell to locate the food and dangers and to find a partner for sex and reproduction. This function is much important as compared to eating a food. If you can taste that food is good to eat or not is enough to survive. There also nose can play very important part. This is the reason for the same.
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
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How do olfactory receptor cells work to make smell possible?
The olfactory bulb is actually a tiny lobe of the brain. There are many thousands of different cell types in the olfactory bulb, each with receptors for different chemicals. When these receptors bind to their matching chemical in the air they become excited and trigger a nearby olfactory nerve cell. Details of what happens after this have yet to be worked out, but basically the firing of these nerve cells is analyzed by nerve circuits in the rest of the olfactory bulb then transferred to the brain, where we call it "smell".
Each lymphocyte has thousands of receptors proteins in its membranes. What is the job of these receptor proteins?
To recognize antigens.
What are the different types of euglena?
Their are thousands of them Their are thousands of them
What is Adhesives made from?
There are thousands of different adhesives, all made from thousands of substances.
How many rocks are ther?
There are thousands of different types of rocks.
How do olfactory receptors work to make smell possible?
The olfactory bulb is actually a tiny lobe of the brain. There are many thousands of different cell types in the olfactory bulb, each with receptors for different chemicals. When these receptors bind to their matching chemical in the air they become excited and trigger a nearby olfactory nerve cell. Details of what happens after this have yet to be worked out, but basically the firing of these nerve cells is analyzed by nerve circuits in the rest of the olfactory bulb then transferred to the brain, where we call it "smell".
How do olfactory receptor cells work to make smell possible?
The olfactory bulb is actually a tiny lobe of the brain. There are many thousands of different cell types in the olfactory bulb, each with receptors for different chemicals. When these receptors bind to their matching chemical in the air they become excited and trigger a nearby olfactory nerve cell. Details of what happens after this have yet to be worked out, but basically the firing of these nerve cells is analyzed by nerve circuits in the rest of the olfactory bulb then transferred to the brain, where we call it "smell".
Why do humans see different colors?
You have receptors for three primary colours in your retina. You can perceive the thousands of colours due to stimulation of the these receptors at different intensity in various permutations and combinations.
How many pain receptors your body?
There are probably tens of thousands.
Which layer of the skin is compose of thousands of sensory receptors?
The layer of the skin that contains sensory receptors is the epidermis. There have been reports of the dermis also containing sensory receptors.
Each lymphocyte has thousands of receptors proteins in its membranes. What is the job of these receptor proteins?
To recognize antigens.
What is the significance of October 15?
The sinking of the Titanic where thousands of lives were lost.
What are the different types of euglena?
Their are thousands of them Their are thousands of them
What is the origin of the chair?
The chair is thousands of years old, some styles in ancient Egypt had important significance.
What different opera's are there?
There are thousands of different operas.
What color is an animal?
It depends on the animal. There are thousands of different animals and thousands of different species of those animals.
What kind of stuff do we smell?
How We SmellDirty socks. Perfume. Fresh-cut grass. Coffee in the morning. Pizza. Hot dogs at a baseball game. Gasoline. Roses. Every day our noses play host to a variety of yummy and not-so-yummy odors.We generally don't pay a whole lot of attention to it, but our sense of smell has some important jobs to do. It helps us to distinguish between foods that are safe to eat and foods that are on the verge of becoming bacteria cultures. The sense of smell warns us of other kinds of danger, too - such as fire or a gas leak. Smells also give food their flavor; you couldn't taste very much without them.How do we smell things? How are we able to detect thousands of different odors, from dirty socks to roses? Here are the five steps of smelling - or "olfaction," as it's also known. The diagram below will help you follow the steps.Step 1: Molecules up your nose Molecules of whatever you are smelling are traveling up your nose, carried on the air you inhale. So, if you can smell dirty socks, it's because tiny dirty-sock molecules have made their way into your nostrils. (In fact, they're molecules of isobutyric acid, which is what gives sweat its odor.) These airborne molecules are "odorant molecules" or "smell molecules."Step 2: Lock and key En route to your lungs, smell molcules get caught in a gooey membrane inside the nostrils. This membrane, known as the "epithelium," is full of the neurons that carry smell receptors. Receptors are your body's tools for picking up smells; the receptors latch onto the smell molecules as you inhale. You've got about five million receptors altogether - so there's quite a welcoming committee for all those smell molecules that whizz up your nose.Smell receptors are picky: They'll only hook up with certain smell molecules, in the same way that a lock will only be opened by a certain key. So, for example, some smell receptors will respond to dirty-sock molecules, and some receptors will respond to coffee molecules.You have about 1,000 different kinds of smell receptors - but you can detect about 10,000 odors. How can you pick up so many odors if you've only got 1,000 types of choosy receptors?Scientists figure that groups of receptors act together in different configurations to pick up odors. A leading olfaction researcher, Linda Buck, compares it to the alphabet: The alphabet contains just 26 letters, yet we have thousands of words and numerous complex languages to convey meaning. Similarly, with 1,000 types of odor receptors working together in different combinations, your nose can make codes for about 10,000 odors.So, what happens after the smell receptors pick up smell molecules?Step 3: Sending signals The information picked up by the smell receptors has to make its way to your brain for processing - so your brain can figure out what the odor is.Each activated smell receptor triggers the neurons in your nose to send a signal - or impulse - to neurons in the part of your brain known as the olfactory bulb. But the work isn't done yet. The activity in the olfactory bulb is processed in an even higher level in your brain, in the place known as the "olfactory cortex."Step 4: Brainpower Signals are relayed from the olfactory bulb to the olfactory cortex, triggering patterns of activity in the cortex. Scientists figure that certain patterns of activity correspond to certain smells (just like certain groups of letters form words). So you'll see one pattern for coffee and another for dirty socks.This suggests that specific parts of the olfactory cortex respond to specific smells - an idea that scientists came up with only recently. It's like flicking light switches. One group of switches will go on for coffee. And another group will go on for roses.What's more, research suggests that the same smells probably activate the same switches for everyone. So, if you and your friend both smell dirty socks, the same patterns of activity are going on in your respective olfactory cortexes. Your brains register what odor it is in the very same way.This is actually a radical new finding in the study of olfaction, and it was made by scientists studying mice. In the Nature journal last November, leading researchers described how all mice are wired to decode smells in the same way. "The fact that this [smell] information is highly organized in the olfactory cortex, and is the same in different individuals, implies something about the perception of odors among different individuals," says researcher Linda Buck. "It provides a potential explanation as to why the odor of, say, a skunk smells bad to all people." Buck and her colleagues are making an "olfactory map" for mice and some day they expect to do the same for people. Their work is advancing the field of olfactory study by leaps and bounds.The smelling process is complex, but in real time, it happens instantaneously. When an odorant coffee molecule makes its way into your nose, it takes a split second for you to consciously realize what the smell is. Your body and brain have the power to receive and interpret complex data at phenomenal speed.I hope this helps XD
