Sixth Sense: The Vomeronasal Organ Essay -- Biology Essays Research Pa

Sixth palpate The Vomeronasal Organ We are all more influenced by smell than we know. (Hercule Poirot) ....Murder in Retrospect, Agatha Christie Biologists have long realized that the noses of most vertebrates actually contain deuce sensory line of descents. The first is the familiar olfactory body, which gentlemans gentleman possess. The second channel is the vomeronasal complex, a system that has its own separate organs, nerves, and connecting structures in the brain. The function of the vomeronasal system is the find oneselfion of pheromones, chemical messengers that carry information between individuals of the same species. It was widely believed (as I frame in some of the older texts I examined) that humans had long ago throw out this sensory system somewhere along evolutions trail. But convincing behavioral and anatomical evidence has since brought the notion of a human vomeronasal organ (VNO) into the realm of scientific fact. Some thirty eld ago, when anatomist David Berliner was studying human skin composition using scraped skin cells from the insides of discarded casts, he found that when he left vials containing skin extracts open, his lab assistants would do more friendly and warm than usual (1). When, months later, he decided to penetrate the vials, the warm and relaxed behavior was noticeably reduced. These findings led him to investigate the possible macrocosm of odorless human pheromones and a sixth sense organ to detect their presence, a VNO.While this early evidence was not empirical, anatomists have since found that all humans display two tiny pits, with duct openings, on both sides of the septum just behind the opening of the nose (3). The duct leads into a tubular lumen lacking a thick, distinct sensory epithelium. ... ...ture textbooks depart attribute to humans this mysterious, unconscious sixth sense. WWW Sources1)Chemicals the cause upheavalhttp//www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http//www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/ma g/art97/pherom.html2)VNO websitehttp//neuro.fsu.edu/research/vomer.htm3)Science Frontiers articlehttp//www.science-frontiers.com/sf090/sf090b06.htm4)Chemical Communication by Willam C. Agosta5) olfactory Receptors, Vomeronasal Receptors, and the Organization of Olfactory Information. From Cell, a journal6)Howard Hughes olfactory website http//www.hhmi.org/senses/d220.html7)Article from The Scientisthttp//euclid.ucsd.edu/weinrich/theScientist2.html8)Pheromone Book freshenhttp//www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psyc-bin/newpsy?7.12Additional SourcesMessages sent through sweathttp//www.patscan.ca//sweat.html