When you think of your sense of smell you think of the
smells you love such as fresh baked cookies and the smells you hate such as the
smell of rotten eggs. Although we love and hate certain scents, have you ever
questioned why you love certain scents but are repulsed by others? Not only are
we repulsed by the smell of rotten eggs, but it also signifies there could be
Hydrogen sulfide near by which could indicate a gas leak. Is our aversion to
this smell hardwired in to our brain to suspect danger or do we learn it?
Researchers such as those from the National Science foundation, the National
Institutes of health, Teasley endowment to Georgia tech and Dr. Bozza from
Northwestern try to figure out the answer to this question.
The National Science foundation, the National Institutes of
health, and the Teasley endowment to Georgia tech performed a new study to test
if pacific corals and fish can smell a bad area of coral. They tested 3 species
of coral larvae and 15 species of fish by allowing them to swim in different
streams of water from different habitats, one from a healthy habitat and one
from a degrading habitat. They found that all 3 species of coral larvae and all
15 species of fish preferred the healthy habitat water. The reason behind this
was that these fish and larvae could smell the difference between a healthy
habitat and degrading habitat by the seaweed. These chemical signals coming off
the seaweed drive away the fish and larvae from settling there which is why
it’s so hard to repopulate the damaged coral reef. Their aversion to the smell
of seaweed allows them to pick proper and safe homes. This leads to the
question whether they learned to avoid the smell of seaweed or was it already
hardwired in their brain?
Dr. Bozza from Northwestern University gave a talk about his
research and how he was interested in finding out how much of smell is
hardwired or learned by using mice. In a mouse’s olfactory system there are a
group of receptors called TAAR’s, which detect low concentrations of amines,
such as what is found in cat urine, a known mice predator. For his experiment
he placed mice in to a compartment where they could either spend time in a room
that smelt like amines or a room that didn’t.
When they calculated how much time the mice spent in the odor room and
non-odor room they learned that mice are aversive to amines and when a single
TAAR gene is deleted they no longer avoid the aversive smells. This leads to the question as to whether this
aversion to amines was hardwired for protection or learned for protection by
the mice. Through Dr. Bozza’s research, the National Science foundation, the
National Institute of health, and the Teasley foundation of Georgia tech more
is being learned about the olfactory system in animals and the reasons behind
preferences and aversions to certain smells.
Works cited
Georgia Institute of Technology. "Fish and coral smell a
bad neighborhood: Marine protected areas might not be enough to help overfished
reefs recover." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 August 2014.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140821141334.htm>.
Paciļ¬co
et al., An Olfactory Subsystem that Mediates High-Sensitivity Detection of
Volatile Amines, Cell Reports (2012),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2012.06.006
Pictures
http://i.imgur.com/ua9hMqq.jpg
http://www.air-tek.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Odor-e1311273857542-300x246.png
http://i.imgur.com/ua9hMqq.jpg
http://www.air-tek.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Odor-e1311273857542-300x246.png
No comments:
Post a Comment