The olfactory pathway from right nasal cavity to cortex. Olfaction is the one sensory system that bypasses the thalamus — primary olfactory cortex receives bulb input directly, with no obligatory thalamic relay, and projects straight on to the amygdala, entorhinal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex. Toggle the thalamic route to see the parallel, secondary detour through the mediodorsal thalamus (linked to odor attention rather than detection). Note also that this pathway never crosses the midline — unlike hearing and vision, each nostril's signal stays strictly on its own side, which is why smell is tested one nostril at a time. Solid meshes are real MNI152-space anatomy (AAL3 atlas); wireframe markers are schematic, illustrative placements for structures too small or too deep for any freely available 3D atlas. Hover a node for a locator line + slice plane.
Hovered structure
Structures▼
Dashed swatch / wireframe sphere = schematic node, not a real segmented structure. Click "Structures" to collapse this panel.
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