What is olfactory memory?

|Miriam Rivas
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When the aroma of a freshly baked cake reminds you of your childhood birthday parties, the smell of homemade soup reminds you of your grandmother, or a certain Fragrance transports you to a specific moment, it is not by chance! It is because of your olfactory memory.

The olfactory memory is completely personal, unique, and non-transferable and makes you relive moments in just a few seconds. We are going to tell you a little more about this marvel.

How olfactory memory works

Although in our daily lives we don't pay much attention to it and prioritize other senses like sight or hearing, our life would not be the same without the powerful sense of smell. And it is directly linked to memory, so it has a great connection with emotions and with our mood.

Surely you are wondering how smell and memory are connected. Well, through a brain process as complex as interesting.

In the nasal cavities are found the smell receptors, known as olfactory epithelia, which are responsible for detect olfactory stimuli and sending a signal to the olfactory bulb; responsible in turn for processing these stimuli and connecting them with different parts of the brain, especially with the limbic system.

The limbic system

The limbic system is a part of the brain that processes emotional information and helps to to consolidate memories since it has structures specifically dedicated to this. Among them we highlight:

  • The amygdala, since it is the organ responsible for associating the aroma with emotions.
  • And the hippocampus, which relates aromas with memories.

This magnificent combo create the relevant connections so that olfactory memory works, and thus, when we perceive a certain scent, we are transported to the place or moment when we smelled it for the first time.

As you can see, the human being is an extraordinary machine, since although we do not have a sense of smell as developed as that of many animals, we do have the capacity to to relate those olfactory stimuli to our memory, thus evoking vivid memories.

The sense of smell and memory

Olfactory memory determines the perception we have of people and places, since the emotional effects that scents transmit to us are what determine our reaction.

People begin to incorporate memories into the very very early olfactory memory, so much so that we begin to do it when we are in our mother's womb! This makes babies recognize their mother's scent from the very first moment.

Over the years, we perfect our olfactory memory, and it ends up acquiring so much power that it can be responsible for completely change our mood. In recent years the great power of the sense of smell has been more than proven, which is why techniques such as aromatherapy who delve into this fascinating world.

But olfactory memory is not only useful for evoking pleasant memories, it is also tremendously useful for alerting us to a smell that reveals a dangerous situation, such as the smell of burning or decay.

The crux of the matter is that the olfactory memory fully belongs to the realm of subconscious so we feel compelled to tell you that, no matter how hard we try, we cannot eliminate the link of certain smells to moments or people. A nuisance, because we know that more than one would like not to have to evoke their ex every time they smell their fragrance…

Fragrances and olfactory memory

Speaking of Fragrances, these have a great power of evocation, since they are extremely striking smells for our sense of smell and end up being those we most identify with and relate to. For this reason, when a person regularly applies a certain Fragrance, they are identified by those around them by that scent. Thus, even if another person uses that Fragrance, for our olfactory memory, that specific Fragrance belongs to them and will lead us to remember them as their own scent.

As you can see, thanks to olfactory memory, Fragrances become our identity mark, in what characterizes us, so we shouldn't choose one lightly.

How? What you still don't have a Fragrance that identifies you? Then don't wait any longer and take a look at the more than 550 Fragrances that make up our catalog! Whether you like the fruity Fragrances, the Fragrances with cinnamon notes or those that smell like cherry; surely in divain we have one that you'll fall in love with and want to make your identity seal.

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