Here’s
one question that may interest you: Have you ever smelled something that
reminded you of an object from your childhood that you had completely forgotten
about for a long time? When I first read this online, I was immediately
intrigued by the possibility that a connection between our sense of smell and
memories does exist. As bizarre as this might sound, I was recently at a
mattress store, and the smell of one of the displayed blankets suddenly
reminded me of a pillow that I was obsessed with in elementary school. The
concept of the sense of smell somehow awakening long-gone memories piqued my
interest; I decided to do some research about it, and I discovered that there actually
is an incredible area in neuroscience dedicated to understanding the science
behind such a connection.
One of the first articles that I
found related to this was from BBC, and it stated that humans have a particularly
hard time clearly communicating the smells that we can differentiate. In the
case of the other four senses, it’s easy to describe how something, for
example, sounds or looks like, but our smells aren’t so easy to delineate. As a
result, we end up labeling our smells according to what we associate them
with, often offering vague comparisons such as “It smells like potatoes.” From
a non-scientific perspective, I tried to understand why this was. Does the
English language have fewer adjectives dedicated to smelling than to seeing or
hearing? Do people who speak different languages have a much easier time
explaining what they smell to others? In addition, I wondered whether it’s possible
that what we smell calls back long-forgotten memories because we often describe
them with metaphors and similes and other associations that are dependent on
our personal experiences. Could such an association act as an intermediary
between a smell that I’m describing and a completely unrelated memory?
Despite the confusion and complexity
that usually define neuroscience, there does seem to be an explanation for why
the sense of smell is so different from other senses and why a connection between
our memories and smells possibly exists. According to this piece published by
Macalester University, all of our senses other than that of smell start at the
sense organs and move to a neural organ called a thalamus before moving on throughout
the rest of the brain. However, instead of going to the thalamus, our smell
information travels directly to the olfactory bulb. Furthermore, another
scientific fact that may explain the oddity is that the odors that we smell are
molecular while the sounds and light that we hear and see, respectively, are
waves. The most compelling information that provides evidence of a connection
between memories and smell is that the olfactory bulb forms a direct link with
the amygdala and hippocampus, which are colloquially known as the organs that
form and store our memories.
Sure, these scientific discoveries do
explain why our smells and memories sometimes get entangled, but they raise a whole
new array of questions, including, “How come the connection occurs sporadically,
meaning that I get reminded of a memory from a smell very rarely?” Personally, I'm not satisfied with the easy answer that I received from researching about this seemingly complex smell-memory relationship, despite its incredible implications for developing smell-based treatments for patients suffering from depression and dementia, according to this article from the New York Times. But since neuroscience and topics related to memory are still so nebulous and hard to explain on a fundamental level, I might need to wait much longer for a clear answer that's not just scientific. As for now, I guess I'll make a note to myself that whenever I feel a bit nostalgic, I just have to sniff a little harder.
To learn more about the neuroscience behind the smell-memory relationship, you can read this piece.
To learn more about the neuroscience behind the smell-memory relationship, you can read this piece.
This is a very interesting post, and it makes me wonder about the relative importance we put upon our senses. Think about it -- we often regard sight and sound as our most important senses, and there is a good reason for that, but we rarely place the same value upon the sense of smell. And yet, as you point out, the sense of smell is also very prominent in forming memories. Again, it makes sense that we place such importance on sight and sound, but it just struck me as a little strange to think of smell as important, and then I started wondering why.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'd wonder if there is a similar relationship between taste and memory, especially because tasting also relies upon chemoceptors. That might be an interesting avenue for potential future exploration.