Abstract
Olfaction is the sense of smell, which is mediated by specialized sensory neurons in the nasal cavity. Classically, the olfactory system is divided into two anatomically independent olfactory systems, the main olfactory system and the accessory olfactory system. Evidence from rodents indicates the presence of other spatially segregated subpopulations of sensory neurons within the mammalian nose. These subpopulations project to different brain areas and process chemosensory information ranging from location of prey and predators, the sexual, hormonal, and reproductive as well as health state of (mating) partners, and care of offspring to the level of aggression in rivals. These subpopulations of sensory neurons use different signaling cascades for the transduction of information from chemosensory molecules into electrical membrane signals. Considerable progress has been achieved in the comprehension of how various olfactory cues are detected and can influence social behavior. But, in many cases questions remain regarding the mechanisms in the brain by which olfactory stimuli influence physiology and behavior in specific brain regions and regarding the individual neuronal circuits and neurons that mediate these effects. The current knowledge on the behavioral, physiological, and molecular aspects of odor detection in mammals including humans is presented in this chapter.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Becker JB, Breedlove SM, Crews D, McCarthy MM (2002) Behavioral endocrinology, 2nd edn. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Buck L, Axel R (1991) A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: a molecular basis for odor recognition. Cell 65:175–187
Firestein S (2001) How the olfactory system makes sense of scents. Nature 413:211–218
Jennings KJ, de Lecea L (2020) Neural and hormonal control of sexual behavior. Endocrinology 161:1–13
Liberles SD (2014) Review examining the chemical diversity of pheromones, their detection and processing by the various olfactory subsystems and neural circuits, as well as the generation of particular behavioral and endocrine responses. Mammalian pheromones. Annu Rev Physiol 76:151–175
Meredith M (2001) Human vomeronasal organ function: a critical review of best and worst cases. Chem Senses 26:433–445
Munger SD, Leinders-Zufall T, McDougall LM, Cockerham RE, Schmid A, Wandernoth P, Wennemuth G, Biel M, Zufall F, Kelliher KR (2010) An olfactory subsystem that detects carbon disulfide and mediates food-related social learning. Curr Biol 20:1438–1444
Perez-Gomez A, Bleymehl K, Stein B, Pyrski M, Birnbaumer L, Munger SD, Leinders-Zufall T, Zufall F, Chamero P (2015) Innate predator odor aversion driven by parallel olfactory subsystems that converge in the ventromedial hypothalamus. Curr Biol 25:1340–1346
Sanchez-Andrade G, Logan DW (2014) Deconstructing pheromone-mediated behavior one layer at a time. BMC Biol 12:33–35
Shepherd GM (2013) Neurogastronomy: how the brain creates flavor and why it matters. Columbia University Press, New York
Tirindelli R, Dibattista M, Pifferi S, Menini A (2009) From pheromones to behavior. Physiol Rev 89:921–956
Wyatt TD (2014) Pheromones and animal behaviour: chemical signals and signatures, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the field of chemical communication and how chemosignals shape social interactions. ISBN 9780521130196
Wyatt TD (2015) The search for human pheromones: the lost decades and the necessity of returning to first principles. Proc Biol Sci 282. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2994
Wysocki CJ, Preti G (2004) Facts, fallacies, fears, and frustrations with human pheromones. Anat Rec A Discov Mol Cell Evol Biol 281:1201–1211. This review takes a critical look on the role of pheromones in human interactions
Zufall F, Munger SD (2016) Chemosensory transduction: the detection of odors, tastes and other chemostimuli, 1st edn. Academic, Amsterdam
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bakker, J., Leinders-Zufall, T., Chamero, P. (2021). The Sense of Smell: Role of the Olfactory System in Social Behavior. In: Pfaff, D.W., Volkow, N.D., Rubenstein, J. (eds) Neuroscience in the 21st Century. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6434-1_29-4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6434-1_29-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6434-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6434-1
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
The Sense of Smell: Role of the Olfactory System in Social Behavior- Published:
- 11 May 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6434-1_29-4
-
Original
The Sense of Smell: Role of the Olfactory Systems in Detecting Pheromones- Published:
- 17 December 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6434-1_29-3