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The senses are our windows to the world Health Articles | July 30 Fredy Guarin Colombia Jersey , 2017
The senses are our windows to the world. People placed into experimental sensory deprivation, removed from the richness and color of the sensory environment, return to the real world lugging a host of...


The senses are our windows to the world. People placed into experimental sensory deprivation, removed from the richness and color of the sensory environment Frank Fabra Colombia Jersey , return to the real world lugging a host of psychological problems.


Although the human sense of smell is meek when compared to the olfactory powerhouses of many other animals, we are fortunate enough to be able to recognize approximately ten thousand odors. Helen Keller certainly must have known firsthand the significance of the sense of smell; in her world of sensory deprivation, her nose provided a door to “viewing” life. She called the sense of smell “the fallen angel of the senses,” referring to the lack of attention paid to it historically.


The sense of smell Felipe Aguilar Colombia Jersey , despite its low placement on the sensory totem pole, is one of the most important senses at all stages of life. Even sperm cells “sniff” their way to the egg as they compete by the frenetic millions for a chance to fertilize the ovoid goddess. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have hypothesized that rodent sperm cells sniff for the egg by processing a series of proteins similar to the ones used by the animals to identify odors and scents. Learn more at聽


Smells can push memories filed in the recesses of the brain unexpectedly to the forefront of emotion and experience (e.g., Proust’s nadeleines). A few molecules of a familiar smell are enough to transport you back to your mother's kitchen, where you’re watching her lace a crust across a pie. A chemical smell A might return you to the yellow bus that carried you to school with its odor of green vinyl. Another smell Farid Diaz Colombia Jersey , a sweet cologne, perhaps, might take you back to the night you first made love to your college sweetheart. A smell can bring on a wave of unexpected emotion, happiness Edwin Cardona Colombia Jersey , sadness, wishfulness, regret. Kipling understood the power of scent when he wrote “Smells are surer than sights and sounds to make the heart strings crack.”


Scents are integral to many cultures. Anthropologist Margaret Mead reported that some primitive tribes will instigate wars with each other if they don’t like the way their opponents smell. The Malay people use incense in their rituals because they believe the pleasant odor will travel to and win them favor.


A popular intellectual pursuit among the Japanese is the elaborate production of the kodo incense ceremony. A practice that began in the sixth century and became highly popular among the aristocracy of the seventeenth century, kodo challenges participants to identify the odor of numerous scented substances and woods Dayro Moreno Colombia Jersey , and to ascribe to each scent a literary theme that reects the nature of the odor.


The sense of smell is triggered when the nose encounters a molecule of scent. When you dip the tip of your nose into the fragrant petals of a lilac, for example, airborne scent molecules sweep into your nostrils and gather at a thin sheet of tissue in the roof of the nasal cavity. This tissue, called the olfactory epithelium Davinson Sanchez Colombia Jersey , contains millions of smell receptor cells all housed in a remarkably tiny area of about one square centimeter per nasal cavity. The epithelium contains four major types of cells: ciliated olfactory receptor cells, microvillar cells, supporting cells, and basal cells. The cells are nourished by the lamina propria David Ospina Colombia Jersey , the layer of connective tissue that binds the epithelium to the bone or cartilage underneath.


Each receptor cell housed in the olfactory epithelium is adorned with microscopic hairlike projections called cilia.


The cilia are like tentacles oating in a layer of mucus. They are also greedy for scent molecules. Proteins on the cilia reach out in attempts to latch onto passing odor molecules. Once the odor molecule and the receptor cell hook up, the reaction is buzzed to the olfactory bulb at the base of the brain, just above the roof of the nasal cavity. From there, the signal travels to the brain and the odor is identified. Though seemingly complex Daniel Torres Colombia Jersey , an odorant is really just a molecule that possesses a particular shape. When we inhale a molecule, it searches for and binds to the appropriate receptor sites.