Why do scents bring back memories?

Have you ever smelled chlorine and it brought you back to childhood memories of playing in a pool?

How about when someone walks by and their fragrance reminds you of your old flame?

“Perfume”, one of Japanese songwriter Eito’s most popular pieces, captures the link between scents and love.

Its popularity shows that this experience resonates with many listeners.

The first article Art Lab Co. would like to share with you is about fragrances and memories.

Quickening memory from odor and fragrance

Every Autumn in Japan, the sweet smell of Osmanthus hangs in the air.

This smell is one of the most sentimental scents for me.

It conjures a feeling of emptiness and melancholy from a lost love in an Autumn of my younger days.

Those emotions and the scent of the Osmanthus are eternally linked in my mind.

Why do scents take you back to memories long ago?

There is a reason that our minds connect scent to memories.

It has to do with a mechanism in our brain. Of our five senses, only our sense of smell can directly send a signal to the hippocampus, accessing memories stored within.

More precisely, our olfactory information travels to the limbic system, the home of our moods and feelings. From there, the hippocampus and the amygdala’s nucleus are sparked.

The hippocampus hosts our memories, and a scent can immediately retrieve a memory like an old love letter from a drawer.

The scent can inspire any emotion, from happiness to sadness, anger, or a bad memory from our past.

Because of the brain’s structure and design, we can recall a memory or a feeling the moment we encounter a scent.

Why is it that only the sense of smell sends signals to the brain?

Since ancient times, it was a matter of life and death for humans to be able to　immediately suss out danger by its scent, considering the many loitering predators in the night.

The primitive part of the brain responsible for this is called the “rhinencephalon”.

Even our distant mammalian relatives, as well as reptiles and insects, have a structure that aids them in smelling danger.

The Proust Effect

The phenomenon of scents connecting with our brain is called “The Proust Effect”, a namesake of the famous author of “Remembrance of Things Past” whose protagonist is suddenly flooded by memories after supping cake dipped in tea.

Not unlike scents themselves, the book is deep and profound, and worthy of a read.

How to Utilize Fragrances

In light of The Proust Effect, we are often told that lavender oil and chamomile aid insomnia or that cypress is good for the brain.

However, the effects can be undesirable if we associate these scents with unpleasant memories.

In England, research on the link between scents and memory showed that subjects who smelled rosemary showed improvements in memory that were not observed in the control group.

Given this information, we can conclude that not all fragrances are beneficial for all people. One can maximize the effect of scents by using aromas that the brain has paired with good memories.

In this way, aromas are highly customizable for the individual.

You can bring the best out of smell if you understand the structure of smell and brain

You can make the best out of scents if you understand the effects of scents on the brain When “The Proust Effect” is first established, our experience is the stimulus that imprints the scent onto the brain.

However, we can reverse engineer this process and bring our memories back to life with aromas.

For example, a child missing his mother can be inconsolable one minute and whisked away into slumber the next by the smell of his mother’s blouse.

Children’s brains are adept at unconsciously behaving in a way that makes them feel closer to their mothers.

Considering this phenomenon, scholars show increasing interest in research about the role of aromatherapy in improving dementia.

In this capacity, I believe that the brain has more influence on this than natural fragrances alone.

Lastly

One of my childhood memories is evoked by smell of celluloid masks of superheroes and cartoon characters that lined the stalls of night markets.

I remember the noisy crowd, cotton candy, and the smell of caramel. Of course, that celluloid smell is not a natural scent, as it’s a resin made of nitrocellulose and camphor, ingredients used in materials from stationery to toys.

People often have the impression that synthetic is dangerous and natural is safe.

However, it isn’t always the case that natural fragrances are better. Our experiences, and the quality of them, tell us which scents we prefer.

As humans, we are as unique as the scents that swirl around us.

The next article explores natural and synthetic fragrances.

If you’re interested, please have a look.