Olfactory dysfunction can result from traumatic brain injury due to cribriform plate shearing of olfactory neuron wires.

“Now speaking of brain injury, olfactory dysfunction is a common theme in traumatic brain injury for the following reason. These olfactory neurons, as I mentioned, extend wires into the mucosa of the nose, but they also extend a wire up into the skull. And they extend up into the skull through what's called the cribberform plate. It's like a Swiss cheese type plate where they're going through and if you get a head hit that bone, the cribform plate shears those little wires off and those neurons die.”