olfactory receptor types. 2 This also supports the idea that human smell is more complex than weâd previously thought.
When the olfactory neurons detect a specific substance (a molecule of cheese, a ketone from something sweet, something emanating from the mouth of someone with questionable dental hygiene) they send electrical signals to the olfactory bulb, which relays this information to areas such as the olfactory nucleus and piriform cortex, meaning you experience a smell.
Smell is very often associated with memory. The olfactory system is located right next to the hippocampus and other primary components of the memory system, so close in fact that early anatomical studies thought thatâs what the memory system was for. But theyâre not just two separate areas that happen to be side by side, like an enthusiastic vegan living next to a butcher. The olfactory bulb is part of the limbic system, just like the memory-processing regions, and has active links to the hippocampus and the amygdala. As a result, certain smells are particularly strongly associated with vivid and emotional memories, like how a smell of roast dinner can suddenly remind you of Sundays at your grandparentsâ house.
Youâve probably experienced this yourself on many occasions, how a certain smell or odor can trigger powerful memories of childhood and/or bring about emotional moods associated with smells. If you spent a lot of happy time as achild at your grandfatherâs house and he smoked a pipe, you will likely have a sort of melancholy fondness for the smell of pipe smoke. Smell being part of the limbic system means it has a more direct route to triggering emotions than other senses, which would explain why smell can often elicit a more powerful response than most other senses. Seeing a fresh loaf of bread is a fairly innocuous experience, smelling one can be very pleasurable and oddly reassuring, as itâs stimulating and coupled with the enjoyable memories of things associated with the smell of baking, which invariably ends up with something pleasant to eat. Smell can have the opposite effect too, of course; seeing rotten meat isnât very nice, but smelling it is whatâll make you throw up.
The potency of smell and its tendency to trigger memories and emotions hasnât gone unnoticed. Many try to exploit this for profit: real estate agents, supermarkets, candle-makers and more all try to use smell to control peopleâs moods and make them more prone to handing over money. The effectiveness of this approach is known but probably limited by the way in which people vary considerablyâsomeone whoâs had food poisoning from vanilla ice-cream wonât find that odor reassuring or relaxing.
Another interesting misconception about smell: for a long time, it was widely believed that smell canât be âfooled.â However, several studies have shown this to be not true. People experience illusions of smell all the time, such as thinking a sample smell is pleasant or unpleasant depending on how itâs labeled (for instance, âChristmas treeâ or âtoilet cleanerââand for the record this isnât a joke example; itâs a real one from a 2001 experiment by researchers Herz and von Clef).
The reason it was believed there were no olfactory illusionsseems to be because the brain only gets âlimitedâ information from smell. Tests have shown that, with practice, people can âtrackâ things via their scent, but itâs generally restricted to basic detection. You smell something, you know something is nearby thatâs giving off that smell, and thatâs about it; itâs either âthereâ or ânot there.â So if the brain scrambles the smell signals, so that you end up smelling something thatâs different from whatâs actually producing the odor, how would you even know? Smell may be powerful, but it has a limited range of
When the olfactory neurons detect a specific substance (a molecule of cheese, a ketone from something sweet, something emanating from the mouth of someone with questionable dental hygiene) they send electrical signals to the olfactory bulb, which relays this information to areas such as the olfactory nucleus and piriform cortex, meaning you experience a smell.
Smell is very often associated with memory. The olfactory system is located right next to the hippocampus and other primary components of the memory system, so close in fact that early anatomical studies thought thatâs what the memory system was for. But theyâre not just two separate areas that happen to be side by side, like an enthusiastic vegan living next to a butcher. The olfactory bulb is part of the limbic system, just like the memory-processing regions, and has active links to the hippocampus and the amygdala. As a result, certain smells are particularly strongly associated with vivid and emotional memories, like how a smell of roast dinner can suddenly remind you of Sundays at your grandparentsâ house.
Youâve probably experienced this yourself on many occasions, how a certain smell or odor can trigger powerful memories of childhood and/or bring about emotional moods associated with smells. If you spent a lot of happy time as achild at your grandfatherâs house and he smoked a pipe, you will likely have a sort of melancholy fondness for the smell of pipe smoke. Smell being part of the limbic system means it has a more direct route to triggering emotions than other senses, which would explain why smell can often elicit a more powerful response than most other senses. Seeing a fresh loaf of bread is a fairly innocuous experience, smelling one can be very pleasurable and oddly reassuring, as itâs stimulating and coupled with the enjoyable memories of things associated with the smell of baking, which invariably ends up with something pleasant to eat. Smell can have the opposite effect too, of course; seeing rotten meat isnât very nice, but smelling it is whatâll make you throw up.
The potency of smell and its tendency to trigger memories and emotions hasnât gone unnoticed. Many try to exploit this for profit: real estate agents, supermarkets, candle-makers and more all try to use smell to control peopleâs moods and make them more prone to handing over money. The effectiveness of this approach is known but probably limited by the way in which people vary considerablyâsomeone whoâs had food poisoning from vanilla ice-cream wonât find that odor reassuring or relaxing.
Another interesting misconception about smell: for a long time, it was widely believed that smell canât be âfooled.â However, several studies have shown this to be not true. People experience illusions of smell all the time, such as thinking a sample smell is pleasant or unpleasant depending on how itâs labeled (for instance, âChristmas treeâ or âtoilet cleanerââand for the record this isnât a joke example; itâs a real one from a 2001 experiment by researchers Herz and von Clef).
The reason it was believed there were no olfactory illusionsseems to be because the brain only gets âlimitedâ information from smell. Tests have shown that, with practice, people can âtrackâ things via their scent, but itâs generally restricted to basic detection. You smell something, you know something is nearby thatâs giving off that smell, and thatâs about it; itâs either âthereâ or ânot there.â So if the brain scrambles the smell signals, so that you end up smelling something thatâs different from whatâs actually producing the odor, how would you even know? Smell may be powerful, but it has a limited range of
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