Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Explain in what way smell and taste stimuli differ from other sensory stimuliIdentify the five primary tastes that can be distinguished by humansExplain in anatomical terms why a dog’s sense of smell is more acute than a human’s

This course serves as an introduction to the structure and function of the nervous system. Emphasis is placed on the cellular properties of neurons and other excitable cells. Topics covered include the structure and biophysical properties of excitable cells, synaptic transmission, neurochemistry, neurodevelopment, and the integration of information in simple systems and the visual system.

By Linda Bartoshuk and Derek Snyder, University of Florida. Humans are omnivores (able to survive on many different foods). The omnivore’s dilemma is to identify foods that are healthy and avoid poisons. Taste and smell cooperate to solve this dilemma. Stimuli for both taste and smell are chemicals. Smell results from a biological system that essentially permits the brain to store rough sketches of the chemical structures of odor stimuli in the environment. Thus, people in very different parts of the world can learn to like odors (paired with calories) or dislike odors (paired with nausea) that they encounter in their worlds. Taste information is preselected (by the nature of the receptors) to be relevant to nutrition. No learning is required; we are born loving sweet and hating bitter. Taste inhibits a variety of other systems in the brain. Taste damage releases that inhibition, thus intensifying sensations...

The course will start with an overview of the central and peripheral nervous systems (CNS and PNS), the development of their structure and major divisions. The major functional components of the CNS will then be reviewed individually. Topography, functional distribution of nerve cell bodies, ascending and descending tracts in the spinal cord. Brainstem organization and functional components, including cranial nerve nuclei, ascending/descending pathways, amine-containing cells, structure and information flow in the cerebellar and vestibular systems. Distribution of the cranial nerves, resolution of their skeletal and branchial arch components. Functional divisions of the Diencephalon and Telencephalon. The course will then continue with how these various CNS pieces and parts work together. Motor systems, motor neurons and motor units, medial and lateral pathways, cortical versus cerebellar systems and their functional integration. The sensory systems, visual, auditory and somatosensory. Olfaction will be covered in the context of the limbic system, which will also include autonomic control and the Papez circuit. To conclude, functional organization and information flow in the neocortex will be discussed.

Olfaction is another word for the sense of smell. In this video, I summarize the process of olfaction beginning with the olfactory receptors found in the olfactory epithelium. I follow the path of olfactory information until it reaches the olfactory cortex, where most olfactory processing in the brain occurs.
Duration: 1:59.

Taste (gustation), smell (olfaction), and touch sensory and perceptual processes. Vestibular sense, proprioception, and kinesthesia are also briefly introduced. Duration: 2:39.