When I came home from Penn State to visit my family the first thing I did after hugging them was run into my room to see it. I missed a lot of things from my home, but my bed was a big one! After I showered (in my own clean one!) I got into my pajamas and lit my candle. When I lived at home I would always lite my Yankee Nutmeg Spice candle right before I watched TV. This big candle lasted me all of senior year and wit the little wax it had lit my room that night. Every time in the past I lit the candle I didn’t think anything of it. When I lit the candle this time though it was different. All of a sudden a bunch of memories overwhelmed me. I didn’t know how to explain it, but it felt just like I was back in high school again. It changed my mood and brought me almost to what it felt as if another world. I began to wonder, can scent really impact ones mood that much?

Smell is one of the most important senses we have. For generations it has helped humans live and function. Smell is a sense we are always using even when we don’t realize it, whether smelling food or a person. Just a little bit of the wrong smell can make a person no longer like something. Think about it, if your food smelt horrible, would you still want to eat it? Smell enters either from our throat or nostrils into our body. Once these molecules are in our body they travel to the olfactory epithelium, which is mucus, enclosed tissue lining the nasal cavity. The molecules then bind with neurons. The olfactory system is responsible for identifying the different smells we encounter. The receptors in the olfactory system send impulses to the micro region. The micro region then releases odorant patterns to the brain. Our brain is able to remember one trillion scents, since the molecules that enter our nose are all different shapes. This allows the multiple molecules to attach to many receptors.

Smell has such an impact on emotions because of the brain. The olfactory bulbs (which receive odor) are linked to the part of the brain that deals with emotion called the amygdala. In a recent study scientists gave people a smell or words about a memory to see what triggered a persons memory more. It turned out that smell triggered more memories than anything. This is because smells go to the cortex, which is the area of the brain of cognitive recognition. Smelling just an old textbook can bring someone back to the memories of when they used it. Although smell can bring people back to certain memories, it can have a big effect on ones mood.

Studies show that when people were given a smell, it sometimes made them in a bad mood, which can lead to poor health, or it made them in a better mood. The studies also showed the positive emotions happen on the left side of the brain while negative occur on the right. Smells can also influence how we see people. In another study people were shown pictures of individuals. They also gave them a smell attached to that individual. Many people said their attractiveness went down if they didn’t like the smell of that person or they went up if the person smelt good.

As I became more interested in smell I wanted to find out what major smells impact us and how. The smell of lemon causes one to concentrate and relax more while lavender helps calm emotional stress. Jasmine helps people who are depressed by calming them while Rosemary improves memory and gets rid of headaches. Cinnamon can also help focus and improve fatigue. Peppermint gives people a clear mind. So, if anyone is ever in need of a smell to help his or her state of mind, one of these is sure to help!

Work Cited

http://greatist.com/happiness/do-scents-affect-mood

http://www.sirc.org/publik/smell_emotion.html

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224575

http://www.medicaldaily.com/how-does-nose-smell-inner-workings-our-sense-smell-324566