Cortical Olfactory Processing

Abstract

The act of smelling is a fundamental perceptual process mediated by the evolutionary very old olfactory system. Smells influence human behavior strongly related to survival, such as food consumption, hazard avoidance, sexuality, and reproduction. Hence, olfactory stimuli are of high ecological importance and are processed in phylogenetically old brain areas. This anatomical deviation leads to changes in the cortical organization of networks responsible for olfactory processing in comparison to other sensory systems that can be perfectly examined with the help of neuroimaging methods. Within this chapter insights about the anatomy of the peripheral and central olfactory structures will be provided and physiological processes that are the basis for olfactory perception will be explained. The way of the olfactory information processing – starting with the molecules that are sniffed and bind to the receptors in the olfactory epithelium, to information transmission to the olfactory bulb and onward to olfactory cortical areas – will be traced. Alongside this, the reader will be informed about the clinical implications of the sense of smell.