You already know even the slightest whiff of a particular scent may be able to send you into a tizzy of driving fear or bring up a slew of other strong emotions. Now scientists are getting closer to figuring out why.
The fact that a neural feedback mechanism works in tandem with the olfactory system has been known for nearly a century. Scientists just weren’t absolutely sure which neuron was doing what to pass along the message based on smell. Then a paper on the topic popped up in Neuron, fortifying former theories and outlining the neurological path a reaction to smell takes.
“…Researchers have, for the first time, described how that feedback mechanism works by identifying where the signals go, and which type of neurons receive them. Three scientists from the Murthy lab were involved in the work: Foivos Markopoulos, Dan Rokni and David Gire.
“The image of the brain as a linear processor is a convenient one, but almost all brains, and certainly mammalian brains, do not rely on that kind of pure feed-forward system,” Murthy explained. “On the contrary, it now appears that the higher regions of the brain which are responsible for interpreting olfactory information are communicating with lower parts of the brain on a near-constant basis.”
Read full article at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121219133442.htm
Study info:
Foivos Markopoulos, Dan Rokni, David H. Gire, Venkatesh N. Murthy. Functional Properties of Cortical Feedback Projections to the Olfactory Bulb. Neuron, 2012; 76 (6): 1175 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.10.028
