You might have noticed that people use certain scents to bring back memories of childhood moments.
These smells and scents are different for each individual. For some it may be the aroma of freshly baked cookies, or the smell of fresh chlorine in a swimming pool, it could be the scent of fresh cut grass or even the scent of gasoline for some.
Smells have a strong but weird link to the emotions and the memories a human holds and they may evoke various different kinds of emotions. This happens due to reasons that are embedded deep in neuroscience.
Our brains flood with memories of past events and locations that we associate with a particular emotion or smell.
When you touch or taste or hear something, the data related to those senses goes straight to your brain and the part that receives this information is called the ‘thalamus’. This information is then sent by the thalamus to various spots that are relevant in your brain. This includes a part called the hippocampus.
This part, called the hippocampus, is majorly responsible for the memories stored in our brian and another part of the brain called the amygdala is responsible for the emotions we associate with specific senses.
However, when it comes to the sense of smell, this process is a bit different.
Scents go straight to a part of the brain known as the olfactory bulb, bypassing the thalamus. The olfactory bulb is located in the center of our brain. It is directly connected to the parts of the brain we talked about above, the hippocampus and the amygdala.
This is the reason that when we smell something, it reminds us of a past time or memory which immediately triggers strong emotions and nostalgia.
Another fun fact is that we have only 4 kinds of receptors for the sense of light as well as for the sense of touch, however, for the sense of smell we have well over at least a thousand different kinds of receptors. This may be the reason why the sense of smell gets an elevated status than the other senses in our brain, even though humans are predominantly visual beings.
In the year 2017 in the month of November a surprising discovery was made by scientists related to the process by which smell was related to memories that are so vivid. These memories can be stored in the part of the olfactory system or olfactory bulb. The part that controls this is a structure that is rather complex and is also known as the piriform cortex.
A study that was published by researchers from the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, in the journal named Cerebral Cortex, used electrical simulation in order to create new connections of memories in rat brains.
Studies prior to this showed that these kinds of stress can create memories that are long lasting in the brain’s main memory center also known as the hippocampus and they wanted to ensure that they could. They, however, couldn’t.
The hippocampus is located in a part that is sensitive to smell, known as the piriform cortex.
This part, the piriform cortex, is connected to various parts of the brain, which includes a structure that is highly complex, also known as the orbitofrontal cortex or the OFC.
This structure is basically responsible for all the information related to the sensory inputs incoming to the brain.
For instance, it is what tells you “This shirt looks good, wear it again” Or that “ Mexican food that is a week old stinks, don’t eat it”.
These researchers tried to use a stimulant in order to stimulate this area, and not surprisingly there were memory changes occurring in the piriform cortex.
This means that the memory center of your brain not only stores long term memory but also that it is connected to the smell center.
If you take a nice long whiff of the paperbacks in that used bookstore or that old bottle of perfume, the memories that come flooding back to you are a happy side effect of the way your brain is wired.
When we come into contact with an odor or volatile molecules in the air, the neurons that send signals to parts of your brain make up your olfactory receptor cells. They send signals to the olfactory bulb.
Researchers at the Ruhr University found that about a thousand genes play their own individual role when coding for a number of different kinds of odor receptors. Each one of these genes focus solely on a subset of odors.
This is why not every single one of these receptors is responsible to understand every single odor. The olfactory bulb has various microregions where these signals are transmitted to. Different odors are transmitted to different microregions that specifically specialize in each type of odor.
The olfactory bulb is then responsible for interpreting these signals into what we perceive as smells.
To explain it in simple words, your nose is filled with 1000s of small scent receptors. These receptors are concentrated in the olfactory bulb which is the part that sends out signals to your brain. The part of your brain that receives these signals is the part that is connected to all the memories and emotions.
So basically, when you first smell something, your brain associates a memory to it such as where you are or who you are with or what you are doing. Later, when you smell that scent, your brain triggers those memories which causes you to feel nostalgic.
Some scents may hold greater power over the others, depending upon the importance of the memory and the nostalgia that are associated with it.
You can experience nostalgia through different sorts of fragrances.
With the help of ELiX’s iconic scents, perfumes and oem air fresheners, you can open up a ton of ways to bring out some of your favorite moments and memories again and again.
As a top-notch air freshener company, we offer a wide range of products, from our natural herbs based reed diffuser to our mist and dewy natural spray, you can be sure to find something that makes you happy.
Here are a few happy options for places to have your favorite scents bring up nostalgic memories for every room in your home:
Find out more about what scents make you nostalgic with ELiX’s wide range of offerings and our luxurious range of private label air perfume.
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