Have you ever experienced a situation where you caught a whiff of a familiar scent, and it suddenly brought you back to a specific memory, perhaps one from childhood? Most people have experienced this type of a situation, and it is often accompanied by lots of sentiment and emotion as you recall a memory that you had long forgotten. The reason that this happens is due to one of our most intriguing senses, olfaction, more commonly known as “smell.” I decided to explore the connection between scents and memory, to try to find a scientific explanation for that feeling of nostalgia that a specific smell can sometimes give us.
A controlled study was done on right-handed females, in which researchers used an fMRI to evaluate the brain’s response to odor-evoked memories. Researchers tested several different cues, including visual, olfactory, and even control cues, and found “significantly greater activation” in the memory regions of the brain “during recall to the personally significant odor than any other cue.” These results are consistent with the hypothesis that smell is a stronger trigger of memory than other cues. However, as usual, there are things we must be wary of. This study could possibly suffer from the Texas Sharpshooter problem, in that the researcher tested so many types of cues that one of them was bound to cause an emotional response in the participants. On a different note, it is interesting to recognize that this study, which only used right-handed females, controlled for possible differences between people who are “left-brained” and people who are “right-brained,” (as they are said to think and behave differently), further validating it as a well-executed, controlled study.
Another randomized study sought to explore the same connection. This study, which tested “three cue conditions (odor only, name only, or odor name),” found that memories evoked by scents involved a more potent emotional response than those evoked by verbal cues. Similar to the first study, the conclusions of this study are consistent with the notion that there is a strong emotional response to memories triggered by olfaction. Again, though, we must be wary because it is possible that the file drawer problem is at play here. It is plausible that only studies with affirmative results were published, and that several studies that found no such connection were not published, thus affecting our conclusions.
Keeping in mind the discrepancies I have mentioned, we can evaluate the implications of these two studies. Knowing this information, companies that manufacture fragranced products, such as Febreze or Yankee Candle, might want to consider selling products that have familiar scents to consumers, as this could potentially influence consumers to buy these products. We must also consider the negative implications of this line of research. Just as familiar odors can bring back pleasant memories, they can also evoke negative memories, such as in the case of PTSD patients, as documented in this study. Overall, the takeaway is that there is scientific evidence to support the idea of scent as a strong trigger of emotional memories. So, next time you smell something that takes you back to a specific time and place, you have some idea of why.
This is a very interesting topic. I can definitely relate to this topic. Every time I put on this one sweatshirt, it reminds me of home. The scent is the same as the smell of my house. I do think it triggers memory because the scent can remind you of an experience with a person or place.
Certain smells definitely trigger different responses and memories. I know this through personal experience and I know other people experience this as well, but those are purely anecdotes. I’m glad you looked into some experiments that attempt to prove why this is! It is similar to what I found in my blog about people’s responses to color; many associate them with past experiences! http://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/?p=13653. It is interesting that you discussed the issues of the Texas sharpshooter and file drawer problem in each of the studies. I agree that if enough smells were used in the first experiment, researchers are bound to find something that causes an emotional response. We would need to know exactly how many different cues they used. The opposite would be true about the experiment dealing with the file drawer, we are not sure how many experiments are being withheld from view. I am curious as to whether these researchers can determine if the response is positive or negative based on fMRIs. You might find this article interesting… Actors were told to feel and create certain emotions and the fMRI monitored the results and could then correctly guess the emotions of the actors when they were shown certain pictures. http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/19/4445684/brain–scan-fmri-identify-emotion
I found this study fascinating! Moreover it inspired one of my current blog topics about the importance of accounting for “left vs. right brain” ideas of analyzing the human mind. Is there any way the smell might not trigger the specific response that companies could target for commercial, perhaps even therapeutic uses? I can relate to this study, simply because I think it’s only natural that people use their senses to associate memory, especially if it’s an overly negative or positive one. According to this article, scents also have a way of bringing back memories that the brain does not actively think of, which affects the ways humans learn and store information without working memory. Research could be done in the interest of developing powerful smelling agents that could stimulate active memory for particularly difficult subjects in the classroom, so as to keep students active and associating the smells with important information. Just an idea. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro00/web2/Ito.html
I’ve always noticed the power of smell and how scent can trigger so many emotions. In my high school biology class we learned about the power of attraction with scent. As a result of scent triggering memories, attraction is highly determined by one’s emotion and memories associated with a person’s scent. Buzzfeed actually made a video where you can see that couples are able to recognize which shirt belongs to their significant other based on the smell associated with it. Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac9-O1e9rvs