“Smelling a pleasant scent activates the reward circuit in the same way that sugar or drugs can. This is to say if it is powerful
, ”explains Nathalie Mandairon, research director at CNRS in Lyon.
The reward circuit is an essential cog in our organism: when tasks necessary for our survival and that of the species are carried out, such as eating, drinking, reproducing, etc., it generates a feeling of pleasure and contributes to perform these same essential acts over and over again.
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For the sense of smell, in practice, the odorous molecules that we inhale enter the nasal cavity and bind to neuroreceptors located at the bottom of this cavity, in the olfactory epithelium.
"These are the only human neurons in direct contact with air"
, specifies Nathalie Mandairon.
Each sensory olfactory neuron corresponds to a type of receptor, compatible with a scent molecule.
Humans have 350 different ones against, for example, 1300 in mice.
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