Why do you stop smelling fragrances after a while e.g. room fresheners after you’ve been in the same room

Question

For example you open a new air freshener and you smell it and it lasts for a few days but does your nose ‘get used’ to the fragrance and you stop smelling it?

In: 22

Answer 1

The sense of smell is a bit like a key in a lock, the smelly molecules are normally large complicated molecules and the sense receptors are like holes where the molecules can settle in if they are the right shape. If a right shaped molecule settles in a receptor you get a message about the smell. Your brain is geared up to getting new information, existing information isn’t going to be a threat to you so is less important than new stuff. With smells over time all the receptors may become full or the brain ignores existing information.