Dissociation of Olfactory Neural Response and Mucosal Potential.

The olfactory mucosal slow potential decreased remarkably or disappeared when part of the mucus on the olfactory epithelium was removed with absorbent paper. In contrast, the neural response was not changed much, while unitary spikes in response to odor also appeared in the epithelium. The paper reduced the thicknèss of the mucus by about half, but olfactory cilia were still present. This evidence suggests that the slow potential is not the generator potential.