Smell And The Chemosensory System

Sense perception is a way to gain information by using our sense: touch, feel, taste, see, hear, and smell, it is a way of knowing. When it comes to ways of knowing, like sense perception, it is questionable whether or not it affects us in a positive or negative way. It can be argued if it is leading us in the wrong direction. If you see it, do you believe it?

The term sensation is used when referencing the process of sensing the environment through taste, touch, sound, smell, and sight (Goldstein, 2014). Moreover, it is the process that occurs once the sensory receptor experiences stimulation, which in turn produces nerve impulses that are sent to the brain to be processed in its raw form, then perception comes into play (Goldstein, 2014). Perception is used to describe the way people interpret these sensations and tries to make sense of everything around them on a daily basis. Perception is the occurrences of the brain

Definition: Expressing something to the reader that involves your senses. Describing the sights, sounds, tastes, feel and smell to represent something or someone. Usually very descriptive.

There are six senses in total and these are known as languages of the mind, or ‘modalities’. These are Sight, hearing, feeling, smell and taste, although the last two can be put into the ‘feeling’ category. We use all of our senses in a particular situation but all of us will have a favourite which we are more comfortable with and are likely to fall back on in times of crisis. (Chrysalis pg. 4)

Often, we do not realize just how important our taste and smell senses are to every day life. We go about our day and do the normal human thing. We sleep, eat, shower, get dressed, go to school, work, etc. What if our sense of taste and smell were taken away? How would it change these every day routines? If there were a house fire while we were sleeping and we could not smell the smoke, what would happen? What if we could not taste or smell the food we were eating? What if we could not smell if our bodies were clean when we showered? As a nurse, what if I could not smell a foul odor in regards to urine or

It would be very difficult having to adjust to a world without sound. The sounds that’s warn us, such as horns, alarms and bells, for example, are very important in our everyday lives. These type of sounds gives people a heads up, like it is a train blowing its horn to warn drivers that a train is approaching the crossing. Also, tornado sirens alerts people to give them crucial time to evacuate and get to safety. Being able to hear these sounds are very important because they keep you safe and out of harm’s way. Another reason why, out of the five senses, taste would be the one I would be able to give up so easily is because unlike taste, the sense of touch is extremely important. Could you imagine coming home, from a long and stressful day, and not be embraced by something or someone you love? Without the sense of touch, you could not feel the warmth of that embrace. Touch is essential to our lives because, just like hearing, it warns us if something is to hot or too cold. In conclusion, I would give up taste over smell, sight, hearing and touching, because unlike these senses, it does not affect my interaction with the

Smell, on the other hand, is the sense that comes from odor molecules attaching to the olfactory nerve. Air carries the odor into the nose. Then odor contacts the olfactory nerves at the top of the nasal passages. The the olfactory nerves send a signal to the olfactory bulb of the brain, and the nerve sends a signal to the front of the brain. The forebrain translates the signals of the odor into a specific smell (Swindle, Mark).

The smell receptors interact with the molecules of these vapors and transmit sensations to the brain. We need only a little amount of molecules of substance to trigger an impulse of smell in a nerve end, and we can smell more than ten thousand different scents. If it is a new scent it is possible to remember the scent and identify it again later. The scent captures one’s memory of the place; the nose makes the eyes remember. For the blind people, the sense of smell can help awareness of one’s location. Odour can also relate to hunger and the desire to consume. Since it is not possible to name all the odours, spatial qualities or experiences are often associated with scents. Positive experiences of smell can be used in design to induce positive memories or associations to a space, while negative smells can do the opposite. Bringing certain smells into a designed space can immediately stimulate emotions, guide us, or distract us. Designer Valerie Trent cites research that connects smell and memory; “People can often recall aromas from childhood or a distinctive odor they’ve only smelled once. Whatever your particular nose prefers, smells do enhance comfort and

T F 1. Generally when one loses his/her sense of smell, he/she also loses the sense

Quantitative smell disorders refer to those in which there is either a complete or partial loss of smell. There are two classified quantifiable smell disorders: anosmia and hyposmia – which is the reduced loss of smell. A branch of anosmia is congenital anosmia; this is the condition where a person is born without a sense of smell. The umbrella term dysosmia refers to a qualitative olfaction disorder in which a person suffers from a distorted sense of smell. From there, dysosmia is broken down into three separate disorders: parosmia, phantosmia, and agnosia. Parosmia is the distortion in the perception of odors (pleasant aromas are now foul and off-putting). While phantosmia is the sensation of an odor that is not present, agnosia is the inability to classify or compare

You and my husband both agree on the sense of smell to loose, he stated every thing else is important to him the sense of touch, hearing, sight. I stated that your sense of smell is important for tasting food and wanting to eat I explained you might not want to eat with that type of loss. He said he would still eat any way because you have to eat.

The senses of smell and taste are chemically based senses that are unique to the other senses in the way in which the brain interprets them. Unlike other senses which are perceived and categorized analytically, taste and smell both pass through the emotional response center of the brain on the way to their being stored as memories, evoking an emotional association to their formation as engrams. Consider the unlikely association between taste and smell and the emotional response that they can trigger; a chemical reaction that gives off a gaseous “odor”, completely quantifiable by scientific standards, can trigger a purely

Engaging the senses promotes learning and retention. Touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste allow humans to explore the world. With each interaction, we take in more valuable information, even unconsciously. Experience is our teacher.