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Mind

Your brain has individual neurons that respond to the smell of bananas

The discovery that certain smells can be linked to specific neurons is helping us understand how the brain encodes concepts

By Carissa Wong

9 October 2024

Get those neurons firing

Natnan Srisuwan/Getty Images

Our brains contain “banana” neurons that fire when we see or smell the fruit, or even just hear the word “banana”, hinting at how concepts are encoded within the brain.

We already know that several brain regions – including the piriform cortex, amygdala, hippocampus and entorhinal cortex – are responsible for processing smells, but until now no one had ever explored the role of individual brain cells, or neurons.

To fill this gap, Florian Mormann at the University Hospital…

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