You catch the whiff of freshly popped popcorn as you enter the movie theater. The process by which the odor of popcorn is converted into neural signals that your brain can interpret as the smell of popcorn is called:

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The process of converting a sensory stimulus (in this case, the odor of popcorn) into a neural signal is called transduction. This is the first step in sensation, which then leads to the processing and interpretation of the signal by the brain. Sensory adaptation refers to the phenomenon of becoming less sensitive to a constant stimulus over time, proprioception refers to the sense of the position and movement of one's body parts, and accommodation refers to the adjustment of the lens in the eye to focus on objects at different distances. None of these processes are specifically related to the conversion of odor molecules into neural signals.

You Catch the Whiff of Freshly Popped Popcorn as You