Olfaction Combinatorial Coding

This demonstrates the combinatorial coding of the olfactory system. It visualizes how complex chemical odors (perfumes) are mapped as distinct spatial patterns in the brain.

🧠 Educational Objective

The human olfactory system can distinguish thousands of different scents using only a few hundred types of receptor cells. When you smell a complex scent, multiple different odorant molecules bind to specific Olfactory Receptor Neurons (ORNs).

Because all ORNs of the same type converge onto a single dedicated target (a glomerulus) in the olfactory bulb, a chemical mixture is translated into a unique spatial "barcode." This simulation visually breaks down that biological process.

✨ Features

• Interactive Odor Spawning: 5 distinct "perfume" buttons trigger different combinations of odorant molecules.
• Animated Binding: Odorant particles float upwards to simulate sniffing and bind specifically to their matching receptor cells in the Nasal Epithelium.
• Signal Cascade: Visualizes the sequential flow of action potentials:
  1. Receptor activation.
  2. Signal travel along converging axons.
  3. Glomerular activation in the Olfactory Bulb.
  4. Transmission to mitral cells (and higher brain centers).

🎮 How to Use

1. At the top of the screen, you will see a control panel with 5 different perfume options (e.g., Floral, Citrus, Woody).
2. Click any button to "spray" the perfume.
3. Watch the animation as specific colored particles float up, activate matching receptors, and light up the corresponding neural pathways to the olfactory bulb.