The olfactory receptor organs and their primary centers are classified into several types. The receptor organs are divided into fish-type olfactory epithelium (OE), mammal-type OE, middle chamber epithelium (MCE), lower chamber epithelium (LCE), recess epithelium, septal olfactory organ of Masera (SO), mammal-type vomeronasal organ (VNO) and snake-type VNO. The fish-type OE is observed in flatf...

Electrical activity and histological changes were studied in the degenerating olfactory epithelium of the bullfrog after the olfactory nerve had been sectioned. After nerve section, the electrical responses to odors disappeared in the olfactory epithelium in 8 days in the summer, in 11 days in the early autumn, and in 16 days in the early winter. In the degenerating olfactory epithelium a strik...

Lesions of the olfactory periphery provide a means for examining the reconstitution of a diverse and highly regulated population of sensory neurons and the growth, en masse, of nascent axons to the bulb. The olfactory epithelium and its projection onto the bulb are reconstituted after ablation by methyl bromide gas, and some measure of olfactory function is restored. The extent to which the sys...

The septal organ of Masera (SO) is a small, isolated patch of olfactory epithelium, located in the ventral part of the nasal septum. We investigated in this systematic study the postnatal development of the SO in histological sections of rats at various ages from the day of birth (P1) to P666. The SO-area increases to a maximum at P66-P105, just as the animals reach sexual maturity, and decreas...

Goldfish reproduction is coordinated by pheromones that are released by ovulating females and detected by males. Two highly potent pheromones, a dihydroxyprogesterone and a prostaglandin, previously have been identified, and their effects on goldfish behavior have been studied in depth. We have cloned goldfish olfactory epithelium cDNAs belonging to two multigene G-protein coupled receptor fami...

Artificial olfactory systems have been studied for the last two decades mainly from the point of view of the features of olfactory neuron receptor fields. Other fundamental olfaction properties have only been episodically considered in artificial systems. As a result, current artificial olfactory systems are mostly intended as instruments and are of poor benefit for biologists who may need tool...

The olfactory sensory epithelium and the respiratory epithelium are derived from the olfactory placode. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating the differential specification of the sensory and the respiratory epithelium have remained undefined. To address this issue, we first identified Msx1/2 and Id3 as markers for respiratory epithelial cells by performing quail chick transplantation st...

A conformational conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) is now recognized as the causal event of fatal neurodegenerative disorders, known as prion diseases. In spite of long-lasting efforts, however, the physiological role of PrP(C) remains unclear. It has been reported that PrP(C) is expressed in various areas of the olfactory system, including the olfactory epithelium, but its prec...

Oscillations in neuronal population activity, or the synchronous neuronal spiking that underlies them, are thought to play a functional role in sensory processing in the CNS. In the olfactory system, stimulus-induced oscillations are observed both in central processing areas and in the peripheral receptor epithelium. To examine the relationship between these peripheral and central oscillations,...

Olfactory dysfunction is closely related to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Yet the mechanism behind this dysfunction remains largely unknown. To clarify the relationship between olfactory and memory deficits, we assessed behavioral and olfactory system pathology in AβPP/PS1 transgenic mice using the olfactory threshold test, the Morris water maze, Western blotting, immunohistochemistry (IHC), and th...