Our sense of smell is clearly a complex process; it involves hundreds of different odorant receptors working in concert. The more an odor stimulates a particular neuron, the more electrical signals that neuron sends to the brain. But researchers at UC Santa Barbara discovered that these neurons actually fall silent when an odor rises above a certain threshold. Remarkably, this was integral to how the brain recognized each smell. "It's a feature; it's not a bug," said Matthieu Louis, an associate professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology [at University of California - Santa Barbara].

— Read more in Researchers reveal an added layer of nuance in our sense of smell at ScienceDaily.