“Scent can bring back more emotionally intense and evocative memories than other senses, like sight or touch. You feel transported to the time and the place,” says Rachel S. Herz, Ph. D., a visiting professor of psychiatry and human behavior and psychology at Brown University and the author of The Scent of Desire.
Who hasn’t experienced this? Smell is an incredible sense, brings back feelings and memories, puts one in a state of trance even. For me various scents evoke childhood memories, first summer together with my boyfriend, home, lovely days during winter, etc. I feel my sense of smell becomes better in time, with experience of distinguishing floral from spice for example. I love cooking for this reason – being able to indulge myself in colourful scents, spices.
The scent/memory relationship is actually pretty complex. The CliffsNotes version: When odor molecules enter the nose, they’re filtered through olfactory nerve cells and go into the limbic system, the emotional center of the brain. That emotion becomes fixed to the odor memory and gets locked in your gray matter until it’s revived with a whiff. Put more simply, emotion + smell = a scent memory. more here.
I remember once I found a box with some scrap notes from 6th grade and a few old pencils. The scent pulled me out of the room and suddenly I was back in the classroom, sitting and waiting for the teacher to ask questions. A few seconds later I was back in my room.
As far as I know time capsules are made in this way, as it’s a remarkable method to store live memories.
I heard Dr Hertz’s interview on a travel show just last week. She was very interesting and passionate about scents. Made me want to reevaluate my collection of synthetic fragrances.
You’re right though, scents do evoke whether it’s positive or negative. I love the floral smell of sweet peas it always reminds me of my grandmother and her enormous old house. She always had small vases stuffed with these flowers.
I love walking by a girl who smells good….