system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How do brain-eating amoebas (e.g. Naegleria fowleri, Balamuthia, etc) know the way to the olfactory bulb after binding to the mucosa?
gpt
The olfactory nerves exit the skull into your nose thru the cribriform plate. It's just a thin bone with tons of tiny holes in it for the nerve fibers. Naegleria has a flagella tail so if you accidentally "snort" it up your nose when you are in contaminated water, the protozoan can swim up and enter thru the cribriform plate into your skull.