[Lifestayle] Olfactory memory: what is it and how does it make us travel in time?

[UltimaTexCS]

If you have not yet heard about the power of olfactory memory, let us give you an example to put you in context: Has it happened to you that after smelling the perfume of a stranger you were transported to a childhood memory? Or that, when perceiving the aroma of a food you remembered a relative? This association process is called olfactory memory.

Read on to learn more about this sensory phenomenon that makes us travel back in time and savor dishes that are not in front of us.

What is olfactory memory?
The first thing to know about the subject is that olfactory memory is a brain process that takes place in our limbic system, but what does that mean? Well, the psychologist Sergio Muñoz in his text, 'The limbic system and its relationship with memory and emotions', defines this concept as a set of structures found in the lower part of the brain and that is responsible for our emotional life and integrates memory and smell.

Having said this, olfactory memory is, according to the psychologist Xevi Molas, a set of associations that are produced from our experiences. The aromas are stored in our brain without knowing that in the future smelling them again will take us back to the past. We associate smells with moments and when we perceive them again, they take us back to a specific moment. That is why certain drinks can remind you of the boy you met in a dive, or a perfume can transport you around the world without leaving home thanks to the olfactory memory.

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What is the mental process like?
Claudia Gómez in her text, 'The olfactory identity: an invisible and silent strategy', explains that for an aroma to bring you a particular memory, 6 steps must be carried out: perception, sensation, emotion, association, the imprint and the remembrance.

Perception is the capture of said aroma; the sensation is the subjective interpretation that you give to it; emotion is the impulse to act on the olfactory stimulus; association is the meaning that your mind gives it and relates it to an event that occurred around said aroma; the imprint is the connection between the experience and the emotion (how you feel and what it means for you to smell it again); Finally, remembrance is literally the memory that comes to your mind when you smell that specific smell.