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 it allows you to 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 do not 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 strong 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 capture olfactory stimuli and send 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 consolidate memories since it has structures specifically dedicated to it. 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 creates the relevant connections so that olfactory memory works, and thus, when we perceive a certain smell, we are transported to the place or moment when we first smelled it.
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 smells transmit to us are what determine our reaction.
People begin to incorporate memories into the olfactory memory very very early, so much so that we begin to do it when we are in our mother's womb! This causes babies to 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 used to evoke pleasant memories, but it is also tremendously useful to alert 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 want 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 evocative power, since they are extremely striking smells for our sense of smell and end up being those we most identify 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 theirs own scent.
As you can see, thanks to olfactory memory, Fragrances become our hallmark, in what characterizes us, so we shouldn't choose one lightly.
What? That 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 prefer the fruity Fragrances, the Fragrances with cinnamon notes or those that smell like cherry; surely in DIVAIN we have one that you will fall in love with and want to make your signature.
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