The silben plate is located in the midline, at the front of the
anterior skull pit. The plate forms the roof of the nasal cavity. It is equipped with about 20 small holes. The holes let through bundles of unmyelinated
primary-afferent olfactory axons -
fila olfactoria - which together form the
first cranial nerve/olfactory nerve (nervus olfactorius). The olfactory axons, several million in number, start from the olfactory nerve cells in the nasal mucosa and end in the two
olfactory nodules that rest on top of the strainer plate.