Recent Advances in Mechanisms of Odor Perception

This paper summarizes recent findings on the olfactory system and on its functioning. Studies in molecular biology indicate that odor receptors are extremely numerous and diverse. These remarkable findings, along with recent data on the functional organization of the olfactory bulb and cortex, provide a framework for revisiting traditional views on odor coding. Both spatial and temporal neural codes seem to participate in the representation of odors in the olfactory system.