The power of fragrance
No one can deny the power of fragrance, especially since some scents, whether good or bad, have the great ability to bring us back to the specific moments in our lives. You are probably starting to relive some of those memories at this point.
A recent study published in Progress in Neurobiology looks at the power of smell to trigger memories. Which significantly indicates the strength of the relationship between the olfactory system and the hippocampus in the brain.
So, it may happen that you smell a pie coming from a nearby restaurant, or that you smell the smells so good from someone, and the memories take you back. And this is what we will talk about in our article.
The power of fragrance: what do recent studies tell us?
The new study begins a better understanding of the human olfactory system and its relationship to memory. Lead researcher Christina Zilano and a team of researchers set out on the study to better understand the profound role our sense of smell plays in connecting memories.
With the help of neuroimaging and intracranial electrophysiology, the researchers were able to directly compare the ways in which the hippocampus functions across human sensory systems. This study revealed that the resting olfactory system is more strongly connected to hippocampal networks than other systems. such as touch, sound and taste.
The power of fragrance: What is the relationship between smell and the brain?
From an evolutionary point of view, the sense of smell in any organism is one of the most important survival tools for it. As Zilano says, we are constantly monitoring the air around us with every breath and sending the information directly to our nervous system.
Zilano describes this system as great, but underappreciated nonetheless. It’s really a complex system, he says, with many parallel pathways that deliver odor information simultaneously to many regions of the brain. This powerful sensory system is very important to our human experience. However, the larger system may be more important than other human sensory systems.
The power of fragrance: the effect of scent on memories
The medical website, Dr Mercola, stated: Smells have a great and effective effect on retrieving memories and past experiences. It is similar to the way other senses work.
According to psychology today, this matter is due to one reason related to the way the brain works in processing smells and the memories that relate to them. These odors are regulated within the olfactory bulb. The area responsible for identifying smells is all in the brain. It is closely linked to the hippocampus in the lateral ventricle of the brain. Responsible for dealing with memory and the brain. It is really surprising that visual, auditory and tactile information does not pass through these areas of the brain.
All smells gather in an area that we call the olfactory memory, as the olfactory memory is the main driver in mammals in retrieving memories, and this develops with the development of organisms and their progress in age. But it does not apply to people with some brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s or dementia. Because this causes them a deficit in their olfactory memory and their ability to remember perfumes, and therefore these people lose the ability to distinguish between smells with age.
Some studies have also found a relationship between depression in some people by discovering their weak sense of smell.
The power of fragrance: the sense of smell triggers memories
Donald Wilson at the University of Oklahoma in the United States of America in 2005 showed that the smell is a physical molecule associated with protein receptors, and each receptor possesses a molecule. Any specific smell that he or she engages with and responds to.
There are a thousand types that neurons can distinguish.
The olfactory system detects odors through the glomeruli located in the olfactory bulb, which are responsible for differentiating the perception of scents.
Memory's relationship with smells makes your emotion stronger:
The smells we smell make their way through different areas of the brain. This includes areas that control memory and emotion. It does additional processing before reaching the conscious perception of smell. In addition to the brain regions that deal with odors, the body contains many odor receptors.
The relationship between memory and smell is not direct:
Laura Schrod did a 2012 study at Saint John’s University in Minnesota. It showed that there is a neural connection between the sense of smell and the memories related to it. But this may be negative or positive. This is not the same for all individuals. It may vary from person to person. There may be some errors in the perception of smells, which makes the smell not affect the memory and bring back memories. The reason behind this is that the relationship between smell and memories is not direct!
