Sense of Smell

The human being has five fundamental senses for the course and development of our lives, but the sense that catches my attention is the sense of smell, I think it’s fascinating how can it transport us to a world of memories of our childhood, old friends or lovers, it’s absolutely amazing because it's involuntary we can't decide what remember or what don't, this sense has that power over ourselves. 

The organ responsible for this sense: the nose. It’s part of our respiratory system allowing us to breathe.  On the other hand, in addition to breathing, the nose allows different odors to penetrate from the outside and, thanks to the olfactory receptors located in the nostrils, perceive, feel and differentiate various odors.

There are a specific neurons located just behind the olfactory bulb that works to identify the different smells, this information travel by our bodies until comes to the thalamus that  transmits some of this smell information to the orbitofrontal cortex, where it can then be integrated with taste information. What we often attribute to the sense of taste is actually the result of this sensory integration.

Most of diseases related to this sense have to do with the loss of it which it’s complicated in daily life

Some examples of diseases are:

Anosmia: total or partial loss of sense of smell (it’s not necessary permanent damage, it could be just for a period of time)

Hyposmia: a reduced sense of smell.

Hyperosmia:  A very sensitive sense of smell.

A way to take care about these complications is don’t introduce unknown objects in our nose, don’t expose you to strong odors for a long period of time, and control colds.