How do species get to deceive the brain?

2004/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Anatomia/Fisiologia

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Scammers have always used spices to cover the smell of food that starts to deteriorate. Now, researchers have discovered how species get to cover the rotten smell of meat and trick the brain.

When they deteriorate, the food releases chemicals into the air and reaches the olfactory receptors by nasal inhalation. Once these chemicals are detected, the receptors send the information to the olfactory bulb of the brain, from where it leaves to the superficial areas of the brain. There the smell is identified and thanks to it man knows that he is not able to eat.

To study the influence of species rats have been used at the University of Tokyo in Japan and they have been given roasted meat along with two species. Researchers have found that olfactory receptors are very sensitive to rotten odor, especially the fish odor from rotting fat meat. This odor is a mixture of alkylamines, fatty acids and aliphatic aldehydes that activate receptors with each of these types of molecules. Later, the researchers gave fennel and clove to the rats and saw that the odors of the species were detected by those adjacent to the receptors that detected earlier molecules.

When analyzing the degree to which the interaction between roasted meat and spices smells occurs, it is observed that the interaction occurs in the olfactory bulb. Researchers have been surprised because they believed it was occurring in the superficial areas of the brain.

According to the researchers, their work can serve to create efficient air fresheners that cover the bad smells of the environment. However, other scientists have doubts because they do not believe that rat studies serve humans.