Previous behavioral work, using a complex five-odorant identification task, demonstrated that olfactory marker protein (OMP) is critically involved in odor processing to the extent that its loss results in an alteration in odorant quality perception. Exactly how the lack of OMP exerts its influence on the perception of odorant quality is unknown. However, there is considerable neurophysiologica...

Herbal teas are a popular global drink and widely used in many traditional medicines. Key odorants one of the main parameters to elucidate final herbal tea’s overall quality consumer acceptance. In present study, for first time, brewing effect on volatile, key odorants, total phenolic contents, antioxidant potential Moringa (Moringa oleifera) Kinkeliba (Combretum micranthum G. Don) was comprehe...

Olfactory detection thresholds for 11 structurally diverse musk odorants and one non-musk odorant were obtained from 32 subjects. Hierarchical cluster analysis produced four groups of subjects. One group (n = 12) was uniformly sensitive to all musks; another (n = 16) was uniformly insensitive. Two groups of subjects contained otherwise insensitive individuals who were exceptionally sensitive to...

In mammals, olfaction is mediated by two distinct organs that are located in the nasal cavity: the main olfactory epithelium (MOE) that binds volatile odorants is responsible for the conscious perception of odors, and the vomeronasal organ (VNO) that binds pheromones is responsible for various behavioral and neuroendocrine responses between individuals of a same species. Odorants and pheromones...

Whether olfactory working memory involves verbal representations or neural images of odor per se remains unclear. This study investigated whether verbal representation influences performance in an olfactory delayed-match-to-sample task and used monorhinal presentation to generate hypotheses as to the underlying anatomy of this mechanism. The main findings were that (a) nameable odorants were ea...

The olfactory epithelium is extensively innervated by sympathetic nerve endings, which release norepinephrine, and parasympathetic nerve endings, which release acetylcholine. Because olfactory sensory neurons have adrenergic and muscarinic receptors in addition to odorant receptors, autonomic stimulation can modulate the responses of olfactory sensory neurons to odorants. Recent studies have sh...

The continuing debate over the basis of odorant recognition with respect to the molecular shape ("lock and key") theory versus the vibrational theory could potentially be resolved by the testing of (13)C-labeled odorants. The application of (13)C isotopomers is discussed herein by means of DFT-calculated IR vibrations and Gibbs' free energies (ΔG) for acetophenone and octan-1-ol, two odorants f...

Perceptual learning is required for olfactory function to adapt appropriately to changing odor environments. We here show that newborn neurons in the olfactory bulb are not only involved in, but necessary for, olfactory perceptual learning. First, the discrimination of perceptually similar odorants improves in mice after repeated exposure to the odorants. Second, this improved discrimination is...