why some smells bring back memories
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Winter has arrived with a vengeance, blasting us with subzero wind chills and furious snow squalls. Though I don’t enjoy shoveling the driveway in these unhospitable conditions, it gives me the chance to savor the piercingly fresh scentof snow. This scent can instantly transport me back in time to one of those rare days in my childhood when there was enough snow to go sledding:
That complex emotion and memory can be triggered by a simple sensory cue: the smell of winter air. How do smells trigger such strong emotions and memories?
The answer is likely due to brain anatomy. Incoming smells are first processed by the olfactory bulb, which starts inside the nose and runs along the bottom of the brain. The olfactory bulb has direct connections to two brain areas that are strongly implicated in emotion and memory: the amygdala and hippocampus. Interestingly, visual, auditory (sound), and tactile (touch) information do not pass through these brain areas. This may be why olfaction, more than any other sense, is so successful at triggering emotions and memories.
A decade ago, Herz and colleagues at Brown University tested whether there was a correlation between the emotional intensity of a memory triggered by a smell and activation in the amygdala. Participants first described a positive memory triggered by a particular perfume. Participants then came in the lab to participate in an fMRI experiment.
While in the scanner, participants were exposed to sequences of both visual and olfactory stimuli. The visual stimuli included an image of the participant’s chosen perfume bottle (the experimental visual –“ EV”) and an image of an unmarketed perfume (the control visual – “CV”). The olfactory stimuli included the participant’s chosen perfume (the experimental odor –“ EO”) and the unmarketed perfume (the control odor – “CO”). (Sometimes in research, you have to do strange things. This may include going to Bath & Body Works to purchase a bottle of “Juniper Breeze.”) If the stimuli triggered any memory or emotion, participants were instructed to hold that in their mind until the presentation of the next stimulus.
When smelling the EO, participants showed the greatest activation in the amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus (a region surrounding the hippocampus). These data suggest that odors that trigger strong, emotional memories also trigger elevated activity in the brain areas strongly linked to emotion and memory. However, it is important to note that only 5 individuals participated in the study, and all were female. Studies with a larger sample size and with both males and females will be needed to confirm these findings.
That complex emotion and memory can be triggered by a simple sensory cue: the smell of winter air. How do smells trigger such strong emotions and memories?
The answer is likely due to brain anatomy. Incoming smells are first processed by the olfactory bulb, which starts inside the nose and runs along the bottom of the brain. The olfactory bulb has direct connections to two brain areas that are strongly implicated in emotion and memory: the amygdala and hippocampus. Interestingly, visual, auditory (sound), and tactile (touch) information do not pass through these brain areas. This may be why olfaction, more than any other sense, is so successful at triggering emotions and memories.
A decade ago, Herz and colleagues at Brown University tested whether there was a correlation between the emotional intensity of a memory triggered by a smell and activation in the amygdala. Participants first described a positive memory triggered by a particular perfume. Participants then came in the lab to participate in an fMRI experiment.
While in the scanner, participants were exposed to sequences of both visual and olfactory stimuli. The visual stimuli included an image of the participant’s chosen perfume bottle (the experimental visual –“ EV”) and an image of an unmarketed perfume (the control visual – “CV”). The olfactory stimuli included the participant’s chosen perfume (the experimental odor –“ EO”) and the unmarketed perfume (the control odor – “CO”). (Sometimes in research, you have to do strange things. This may include going to Bath & Body Works to purchase a bottle of “Juniper Breeze.”) If the stimuli triggered any memory or emotion, participants were instructed to hold that in their mind until the presentation of the next stimulus.
When smelling the EO, participants showed the greatest activation in the amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus (a region surrounding the hippocampus). These data suggest that odors that trigger strong, emotional memories also trigger elevated activity in the brain areas strongly linked to emotion and memory. However, it is important to note that only 5 individuals participated in the study, and all were female. Studies with a larger sample size and with both males and females will be needed to confirm these findings.
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