Piriform cortex

The olfactory cortex, also rhinencephalon ( olfactory bulb ) contains the structures of the cerebrum, which are used for perception and central processing of odors. It is built entirely differently than the other receptive fields. The cerebral cortex is here stranded like pulled forward and forms the olfactory bulb ( olfactory bulb ) and the olfactory peduncle. These two have largely lost their cortical character in humans by a significant reduction in cell number. Not least for this reason ( but mainly due to the elongated shape) of the olfactory cortex was misinterpreted by the old anatomists as nerve. The medical nomenclature retains this error in the numbering of the cranial nerves and causes these structures as the first cranial nerve ( olfactory nerve ). In non-primate of the olfactory bulb is proportional to the rest of the cerebrum much more pronounced and dominates it forward. The centripetal forwarding paths form the olfactory tract lateralis et medialis and the olfactory trigone.

The olfactory cortex in the strict sense, also known as Cortex praepiriformis, forms the primary olfactory cortex. He belongs to the allocortex consists of three layers and has close links with the hippocampus. In humans, it takes in accordance with the relatively low sense of smell ( Mikrosmie ) only a small area.