How nerve cells distinguish odours

Whether different odours can be quickly distinguished depends on certain synapses in the brain that inhibit nerve stimulation. The researchers in Professor Dr Thomas Kuner's team at the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Heidelberg University Medical School and Dr Andreas Schaefer at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research have shown that mice in which a certain receptor in the olfactory centre is missing can distinguish similar smells more quickly than mice without genetic manipulation. This behaviour was directly attributed to inhibitor loops between adjacent nerve cells...

Read the whole article on

More from