From nose to brain
In humans, the fetal olfactory system becomes functional as early as the sixth month. Most people can detect an odor using the 40 million olfactory receptors in the nasal cavity. With each new odor, our neurons transmit information to the olfactory cortex, which is linked to two emotional regions of the brain, the hippocampus and the amygdala, also involved in memory.
Persistence over time
The results of a study conducted in the 1970s indeed showed that, for short delays, visual memory performance was superior to that of olfactory memory. However, after several months, the rate of visual recognition collapsed while olfactory memories remained intact.
A powerful evocative power
The most famous example is undoubtedly the episode of the madeleines mentioned by Marcel Proust in his book “ Swann's Way” . But who has never been confronted with this disturbing experience: bringing back a part of life with details that one thought had been definitively forgotten? This is what specialists call episodic memory.
And you, what aroma reminds you of a particular memory?
