'Smelling' the past...

[Aeolus21]

Some of you might know about this, but have you ever smelled something that was able to bring back certain memories?

I've read somewhere that the mind is able to recall memory better if it recognized certain smells from previous experiences. Today sort of justified that as I walked by a perfume section at a Macy's and remembered a particular scent that my mother used to wear when I was a kid. That in itself brought me back to other memories that related to that same kind of smell.

Weird, but fascinating...

[TheMelodyMaker]

Yes... I do remember things from smelling stuff! While the smell of oil/gasoline mixture reminds me of my grandfather's old gas station, there's some other smell (though I can't remember what it is) that reminds me of my grandmother's kitchen. Good memories... ^_____________^

[Alice]

Many things.

A certain detergent/drying laundry smell reminds me of the beach.

A certain air freshener reminds me of a certain time in my life when I was really into Gundam. (Yeah, weird, huh?)

I'm sure there are other things.

[Arbre]

All the time.
I pick up scents that remind me of various teachers in elementary school, setting up a tent at girls camp, catching tadpoles (it's something in the mud... I know it's something in the stinky mud there), Summer near a pear tree where all the yellow jackets were, the carpet in my friend's house when I was like 8, a certain My Little Pony scent (yes, I had a scented one o_O) takes me back to a whole lot of associated memories, and the smell of lots of other people and their houses. I remember the scent of the house of a certain family, and the memories of basically everything I did in that house or with that family rushes back. BOOM. Like that.

And it's really amazing how suddenly the memories relating to the subject or scene just hit ya.

I read somewhere (yeah, here I go, not giving sources and adding to the already rampant hearsay ane rumors on the Internet. ) that smells don't have to go through the same memory-setting process as visual, auditory, etc cues. I heard they go straight to long-term and they are remembered dfferently somehow.

So... scents are remembered differnetly than how you remember your neighbor's name. Not like a piece of information, but as an unconscious background to other memories... or something. <_<


Regardless of how accurate that is, scents do seem to have more associations in memory and seem get the brain to give them up a lot more easily.

[Kat Walker]

Smell is supposed to be the strongest sense tied to memory. At least according to those deoderant commercials.

Everytime anyone I know sniffs Warm Vanilla Sugar Body Spray from B&BW, they say they are instantly reminded of me. ;D

[shooraijin]

It is indeed. The olfactory nerve, which (surprise surprise) sits at the top of your nose, is wired through its cortex into several important regions controlling emotion and memory. While people argue strenuously over whether humans have pheromones (and even if true, this would be only one part of our complex dating and mating structure, so I'm not too worried about being swept away just because Ms. Wrong was wearing Catchamanyoubet), there is definitely something strongly evocative about certain smells, and our brain seems to catalogue memories with them.

This is a nice paper about some of the connections, though it's a trifle technical.

http://medstat.med.utah.edu/kw/hyperbrain/syllabus/syllabus14.html

[Todeskreuz]

I knew that scents trigger memories and now I know why YAY ^^ but yeah... like incense always takes me to the Renaissance festival cuz so much burns there, and other smells make me think of my friends etc ^^

[FadedOne]

This is a nice paper about some of the connections, though it's a trifle technical.

just a trifle eh? *eyes roll back in head; falls over unconscious* j/k

mm....I think scents are like, the most memory envoking thing for me. Which is sometimes a very stressful thing...but yeah, oh well. Sometimes it can be great too.

[ShiroiHikari]

Oh yeah. Certain scents take me away to old memories in a flash. The smell of oil/exhaust fumes reminds me of my dad. XD; He used to work on cars all the time.

[Syaoran]

Ya I had that happen to me....what a rush.

[desperado]

i have to say the smell of a woodburning stove does remind me of winter and christmas. so i do agree fully with this

[IZ&Trigun4life]

Usually familar smells trigger memories of people or their homes. Like the other day, my mom sprayed an air freshner that smelled just like my uncle's house did when I was little.

[Kkun]

There are several but one weird one that sticks out is the smell of ammonia. If I smell ammonia, I am taken back to summer of 2002: The year I started playing DDR. Putt Putt, the place where I would play, always smelled like ammonia. It's weird. It's really, really weird. Especially when I smell ammonia and my body starts dancing DDR steps. That's really embarrassing when it happens in public. >_> <_<

[Godly Paladin]

I love smelling things and trying to match them with things from the past. Usually outdoor smells trigger the most memories.

[Spiritsword]

In my opinion, I have a pretty good olfactory memory. I'm able to recall smells in a way like one would a visual image, and specific smells at that. And yes, certain smells trigger memories for me. I tend to remember the smells of buildings a lot. Like when I walk through this corridor at my old university, and it still smells the exact same as it did when I was in college. So yeah, I remember specific smells, and smells will remind me of things.

[Aeolus21]

Ah yes, smells in buildings really are like little time machines in itself. I remember in High School there was this classroom that I had been Freshman year and visited my Senior year. You wouldn't believe how much reminescing I did with my teacher, smelling that same unique scent four years later.

Though recently I've been obsessed with using a sweet smelling air freshner in the house, which is the same one I use for when a party happens. It seems like everyday I feel like I'm preparing for a get-together, even though it's really going to be a lonely day. Funny how scents can fool the mind that way.

[Fsiphskilm]

A stea

[bigsleepj]

Wet paint. Sounds strange but once as a child I spent the day, with my brother and sister, painting something. Because of this, whenever I smell wet paint, I think of my childhood.

[soul alive]

it's bizarre, but a house that smells like canned corn / animals / ranch stuff reminds me of my grandpa's house when i was little.

and anyone wearing very heavy women's perfume reminds me of my mother, since she tends to over-use perfume

[Felix]

I know that the smell of this certain brand of hot salsa makes me think of this old super nintendo game. u.u I will refrain from explaining.

[Kisa]

hehe its cool when it happens.... like certain degergent soaps remind me of when we lived in Australia, or a plant smell.....
also whenever I smell biscuits and gravy I think of my Granny....
(this works with sound and taste too ^^)

[teen4truth]

well, i know that it happens to me too...but the anoing (was that spelt wrong?) thing is sometimes i smell a familiar smell and cant think of what it reminds me of!

[Markus]

GOSH!!! shooraijin... you totally beat me to the "showing the scientific study" thing like every time...
Course you know... this means war.

I had a friend write a paper on this in high school. He got an "A" cause he sprayed the paper with the teachers' wife's perfume, and asked at the end if he was thinking of her.