Figure 2.
Limbic processing of olfactory information in the rodent. The rodent limbic system is highly influenced by olfactory cues received by the main olfactory epithelium (MOE, purple) and vomeronasal organ (VNO, red). The Grueneberg ganglion (pink), which senses stress in conspecifics, is depicted in the tip of the rodent nose. The VNO, located on the palate, of the mouth detects non-volatile or lipophilic chemicals that are channeled by the tongue through a pore in the roof of the mouth. Volatile chemical scents are more readily aerosolized and travel further back into the nasal cavity to reach the MOE on the turbinates. Projections from sensory neurons in the VNO and MOE are received in the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) and main olfactory bulb (MOB), respectively, located in the brain. Signal is then passed to other structures of the limbic system including the amygdala (green), bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST, blue), and hypothalamus (Hypo, yellow).