Question

How are odors different than other stimuli?

Answer 1

The olfactory system is different from the other sensory modalities in three fundamental ways. First, it the olfactory sense is the only system which is directly connected to the cerebrum. The sensory information is transferred from the olfactory bulb to the olfactory cortex directly. Secondly, unlike vision and other senses, there are no other parts of the brain which are involved in the interpretation and analysis of this olfactory stimuli. It is only the olfactory bulb which is responsible for the olfactory cortex and no other intermediary part of the brain involved in it. Thirdly, the olfactory receptor neurons die out quickly and are replaced very often, the only other sense which does this is the taste receptors, but they also do not do it as frequently.