Smell
This moist substance in your nose dissolves odor molecules so you can smell them.
What is mucus?
These tiny hair-like structures on olfactory cells increase surface area to detect odors.
What are Cilia?
This sense is closely connected to your sense of taste.
What is smell?
These tiny bumps on your tongue hold the taste buds.
What are papillae?
This part of the ear collects and funnels sound into the ear canal.
What is the pinna?
This part of the brain receives and identifies smell information.
What is the Temperal Lobe?
This patch high inside the nasal cavity holds millions of smell sensors.
What is the Olfactory Epithelium?
For you to taste food, the chemicals must dissolve in this.
What is saliva?
These special cells inside taste buds detect chemicals in food.
What are gustatory cells?
1. The ear is divided into these three main sections.
2. These three tiny bones in the middle ear vibrate to pass sound along.
1. What are the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear? 2. What are the hammer, anvil, and stirrup?
These specialized cells detect chemicals in the air and send signals to the brain.
What are Olfactory Cells?
These two structures sit above the nasal cavity and pass smell messages to the brain.
What are the olfactory bulbs?
This is the small opening where dissolved chemicals enter to trigger taste.
What is a taste pore?
Older people sometimes add more salt or perfume because these cells weaken with age.
What are olfactory cells?
1. This structure vibrates when sound waves hit it, starting the hearing process.
2.This inner ear structure converts sound vibrations into nerve signals.
3. These three loop-shaped structures help you maintain balance.
1. What is the ear drum?
2. What is the cochlea?
3. What are the semicircular canals?
This happens when you stop noticing a smell because it’s been present for too long.
What is adaptation?
Name the path an odor molecule takes from entering the nose to reaching the brain.
What is: odor molecule → mucus → cilia → olfactory cells → neurons → olfactory bulbs → temporal lobe?
Warm food usually tastes stronger because the heat does this to chemicals.
What is helping them dissolve and reach taste buds faster?
Losing this sense can make food taste bland and reduce appetite.
What is the sense of smell?
1. This nerve carries sound messages from the cochlea to the brain.
2. Explain why you feel dizzy when you stop spinning quickly.
1. What is the auditory nerve?
2. The fluid in the semicircular canals keeps moving even after you stop, sending mixed balance signals
Explain why increasing surface area (through cilia) helps you detect even very faint smells.
What is: more surface area means more contact points for odor molecules, making detection easier?
In what situation could olfactory adaptation become dangerous, and why?
What is: if someone stops noticing harmful smells (like gas leaks or smoke), they might not respond quickly to danger?
Explain why warm food stimulates taste buds more effectively than cold food.
Warm temperatures make molecules move faster, speeding chemical reactions involved in taste?
Describe how the senses of taste and smell work together when eating food.
Smell detects airborne chemicals (olfaction) while taste detects dissolved chemicals on the tongue, and the brain combines both signals to create flavor?
Describe the full path of sound from entering the outer ear to being interpreted by the brain.
sound enters the pinna → travels through the ear canal → vibrates the ear drum → moves through the hammer, anvil, and stirrup → enters the cochlea → hair cells send signals through the auditory nerve → the brain interprets them as sound