Those Who Know What the Nose Knows
Those Who Know What the Nose Knows
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那些知道鼻子所知道的人
DOI：
10.1002/ar.23036
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发表时间：
2014
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
J. Laitman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
J. Laitman
与人不同，身体的所有部位并不是都受到同等的爱护。有一次，我实际上测试了我的绝妙假设，只需询问即将入学的医学院学生，他们在职业生涯中考虑关注身体的哪个部位。当我问及心脏时，一支军团出现了。当我打电话给大脑和神经时，许多人突然集中注意力。当我提到膝盖、肘部和关节时，所有六英尺以上的人都站得很高（一定要爱那些兄弟会兄弟，所有未来的骨科医生！）。即使是一些非常大胆的人也承认对泌尿道和生殖器感兴趣（我认为是后者）。胆量也很吸引人。耳朵有其爱好者，喉咙和眼睛（都戴着眼镜）也有其爱好者。当我给肺部打电话时，几个咳嗽的孩子发出喘息声，引起注意。一些长相奇怪的人甚至喜欢脚（我不会去那里）。当我叫“鼻子”时，没有人回应。我以为我有机会与那些少数自豪地戴着鼻子穿孔的人在一起，但是，不，没有人适合鼻子。我想，多么有趣的是，他们都放弃了研究哺乳动物身体结构中最重要且极其诱人的结构之一的职业。毕竟，我们和我们最亲近的亲属都是呼吸空气的哺乳动物，而允许气体混合物进入我们身体的生命门户是鼻子。这是我们每天开始在镜子中看到的第一件事，它显然是我们存在的核心，也是我们功能的核心，就像我们脸上的鼻子一样。那么，为什么没有接受者呢？没有明确的答案，但它可能隐藏在“熟悉滋生蔑视”的古老格言中。我们都知道老鼻子的作用，对吧？这就是我们胖乎乎的脸颊之间、神圣的眼睛下方和匀称的嘴唇上方的那件有趣的事情。只有两个孔让空气进出我们的身体。我们不会太多地考虑它，除非它“塞满了”；偶尔发生出血时，通常是在不合时宜的时刻；或者当令人不愉快的物质排出时（通常称为粘膜炎；您是否知道鼻粘液最初被认为起源于大脑，特别是垂体，直到 17 世纪才被揭穿？；参见 Schneider，1660 年；Lower，1670 年）。我们的鼻子也经常惹恼我们，并且特别擅长在重要事件发生之前长出难看的“丘疹”（它如何知道这些事件何时即将发生？）。只有不起眼的雪橇犬、老喇叭、吉米·杜兰特特别曲。这里没有什么真正有趣的，对吧？我那些才华横溢的学生们大错特错了！鼻子不仅仅是两个看起来无害的孔，周围有一些软骨和各种组织和血管。正如本期《解剖学记录》特刊《脊椎动物的鼻子：进化、结构和功能》（由 Baire Van Valkenburgh、Timothy Smith 和 Brent Craven 客座编辑（2014 年））所描述的那样，鼻子是一个由迷宫、骨骼、神经和特殊组织、血管和导管组成的巨大仙境，它们通过进化而变形和变化，以适应特定的需求。这辆充满活力的鼻三驾马车——Van Valkenburgh，一位著名的脊椎动物古生物学家，专门研究大型掠食性哺乳动物（她也是院长；多么有趣），特别关注它们的嗅觉和进食适应的界面；蒂姆·史密斯（Tim Smith），可以说是当今世界领先的比较头颈组织学家，他的研究重点是鼻组织的微观结构，对难以捉摸的犁鼻器官特别着迷（他也是一位令人难以置信的艺术家）；布伦特·克雷文 (Brent Craven) 是一位非常聪明的人，他将解剖学知识与气流动力学方面的专业知识相结合，了解动物如何整合和理解它们所闻的气味（他实际上弄清楚了狗通过鼻子感知周围世界的原因和方式！）。这些优秀的人将他们的知识和热情与其他志同道合的人融合在一起，他们从这个多方面宝库的不同特征中汲取灵感，为我们提供了了解他们世界的非凡视角。本特刊源于 2013 年在西班牙巴塞罗那举行的国际脊椎动物形态学大会上举办的“脊椎动物鼻子内部：进化、结构和功能”研讨会，该研讨会得到了《解剖记录》的部分支持。正如在这些页面中一样，“鼻子”的非凡复杂性、发展和演变通过视角、研究材料和采用的方法的多样性被展现得栩栩如生。事实上，当非鼻科专家深入阅读本文的文章时，他们会震惊的是不同脊椎动物“利用鼻子”来实现其生活方式的非凡方式，以及鼻子的构成。看似简单的事情并不总是如此。贯穿本期并在许多论文中得到大量评论的一个主题涉及
Unlike people, all body parts are not beloved equally. Once I actually tested my brilliant hypothesis by simply asking my incoming medical school students what part of the body they were considering focusing on in their careers. A legion arose when I asked about the heart. Many snapped to attention when I called brain and nerves. All those over six feet stood tall when I mentioned knees and elbows and joints (got to love those frat brothers, future orthopedists all!). Even a few very bold souls acknowledged interest in the urinary tract and genitalia (I think it was the latter). Guts were a draw too; ears had their aficionados, as did throats, and eyes (those all wore glasses). A couple of coughing kids wheezed to attention when I called lungs. A few oddlooking folks even liked feet (I won’t go there). No one responded when I called “nose.” I thought that I had a chance with those few proudly wearing nose piercings but, no, no one for the nose. How interesting, I thought, that they would all eschew a career studying one of the most important— and incredibly alluring—structures of the mammalian body plan. After all, we, and our closest kin are airbreathing mammals and the portal for that lifeallowing gaseous mixture to enter our bodies is the nose. It’s the first thing we see in the mirror at the beginning of our day, and it is as plainly central to our existence, and as core to our functioning as, well, the nose on our faces. So, why no takers? There’s no clear answer, but it probably lies somewhere buried in the old adage that “familiarity breeds contempt.” We all know what the ol’ nose does, right? It’s just that funny thing between our chubby cheeks, below our sainted eyes and above our shapely lips. Just two holes for air to get into and out of our body. We don’t think about it much, except when its “stuffed”; when bleeding occasionally occurs, usually at most inopportune moments; or when unpleasant material drains out (often called catarrh; did you know that nasal mucus was originally thought to originate in the brain, specifically the pituitary, and this wasn’t debunked until the 17th century?; see Schneider, 1660; Lower, 1670). Our nose also frequently annoys us, and is particularly adept at sprouting unsightly “pimples” just before an important event (how does it know when these events are about to happen?). Just the unspectacular schnoz, the old honker, the Jimmy Durante special. Nothing of real interest here, right? My brilliant students could not have been more wrong! The nose is a lot more than two innocuous looking holes surrounded by some cartilage and assorted tissues and vessels. As brought to life in this Special Issue of The Anatomical Record, “The Vertebrate Nose: Evolution, Structure, and Function,” Guest Edited by Baire Van Valkenburgh, Timothy Smith and Brent Craven (2014), the nose is a vast wonderland of labyrinths and bones, nerves and specialized tissues, vessels, and ducts, that have morphed and changed through evolution to accommodate specific requirements. This energetic nasal troika—Van Valkenburgh, an eminent vertebrate paleobiologist specializing in large, predatory mammals (she’s also a Dean; how interesting), with a particular focus on the interface of their olfaction and feeding adaptions; Tim Smith, arguably the leading comparative head and neck histologist in the world today whose research focuses on the microstructure of nasal tissues, with a particular fascination for the elusive vomeronasal organ (he’s also an incredible artist); and Brent Craven, one really smart guy, who combines anatomical knowledge with expertise in airflow dynamics to understand how animals incorporate and understand what they are smelling (he’s actually figured out why and how dogs perceive the world around them through their noses!). These good folks have melded their knowledge and passion with other like-minded souls who pick away at the diverse features of this multifaceted treasure trove to offer us this extraordinary view into their world. This Special Issue arose from a Symposium, “Inside the Vertebrate Nose: Evolution, Structure and Function,” supported in part by The Anatomical Record, held at the International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology in 2013 in Barcelona, Spain. There, as within these pages, the extraordinary complexity, development, and evolution of “a nose” was brought to life through the diversity of perspectives, material studied, and approaches employed. Indeed, what will strike one who is not a nasal cognoscenti as they wade into the articles herein is the extraordinary ways in which different vertebrates have “employed noses” to effectuate their lifestyles and, indeed, what constitutes a nose. What may seem simple is not always so. A theme that runs through this issue, and is heavily commented upon in a number of papers, concerns the