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Some women who lack olfactory bulbs seem to be able to smell without a problem, according to a study published today (November 6) in Neuron. The finding is a surprise to neuroscientists, who have considered the brain structures to be the sites of scent processing.
When odors enter the nose and trigger chemical receptors there, electrical signals travel to the olfactory bulbs of the brain, where clusters of nerves called glomeruli process the smell’s signal. Without olfactory bulbs, a person should be unable to process odors, researchers had assumed.
In a study of healthy, left-handed women, neuroscientist Noam Sobel of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and colleagues happened to identify two women who appeared to lack olfactory bulbs. But when they conducted an odor test, the women showed no impairments to their sense of smell.
Turning to MRI scans of more than 1,000 ...
