[memling]

Maybe a naive question, but could that help explain why your sense of smell adjusts? If there is a finite number of receptors and they require excitation to trigger the sense of smell, it stands to reason that saturation would dull the sense of smell.

[mojo74]

Visit somewhere smelly like a farm and your sense of smell is blown away by what you would call pretty odiferous smells. Stay there a few days and the smell seems to lessen. I guess the receptors get blasé about these molecules to help you cope with your new environment. So I would go with the idea of saturation.

[gumby]

I imagine that acclimation phenomenon is neurological, as the same thing happens with background sound