SMELL
AND NOSTALGIA
Why does the
scent of a fragrance or the mustiness of an old trunk trigger such powerful
memories of childhood? New research has the answer, writes Alexandra Witze.
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A
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You probably
pay more attention to a newspaper with your eyes than with your nose. But
lift the paper to your nostrils and inhale. The smell of newsprint might
carry you back to your childhood when your parents perused the paper on
Sunday mornings. Or maybe some other smell takes you back – the scent of
your mother’s perfume, the pungency of a driftwood campfire. Specific
odours can spark a flood of reminiscences. Psychologists call it the
“Proustian phenomenon”, after French novelist Marcel Proust. Near the
beginning of the masterpiece In Search of Lost Time, Proust’s narrator
drunks a madeleine cookie into a cup of tea – and the scent and taste
unleash a torrent of childhood memories for 3000 pages.
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B
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Now, this
phenomenon is getting scientific treatment. Neuroscientists Rachel Herz, a
cognitive neuroscientist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island,
have discovered, for instance, how sensory memories are shared across the
brain, with different brain regions remembering the sights, smells, tastes
and sounds of a particular experience. Meanwhile, psychologists have
demonstrated that memories triggered by smells can be more emotional, as
well as more detailed, than memories not related to smells. When you
inhale, odour molecules set brain cells dancing within a region known as
the amygdala, a part of the brain that helps control emotion. In contrast,
the other senses, such as taste or touch, get routed through other parts of
the brain before reaching the amygdala. The direct link between odours and
the amygdala may help explain the emotional potency of smells. “There is
this unique connection between the sense of smell and the part of the brain
that processes emotion,” says Rachel Herz.
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C
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But the links
don’t stop there. Like an octopus reaching its tentacles outward, the
memory of smells affects other brain regions as well. In recent
experiments, neuroscientists at University College London (UCL) asked 15
volunteers to look at pictures while smelling unrelated odours. For
instance, the subjects might see a photo of a duck paired with the scent of
a rose, and then be asked to create a story linking the two. Brain scans
taken at the time revealed that the volunteers’ brains were particularly
active in a region known as the olfactory cortex, which is known to be
involved in processing smells. Five minutes later, the volunteers were
shown the duck photo again, but without the rose smell. And in their
brains, the olfactory cortex lit up again, the scientists reported
recently. The fact that the olfactory cortex became active in the absence
of the odour suggests that people’s sensory memory of events is spread
across different brain regions. Imagine going on a seaside holiday, says
ULC team leader, Jay Gottfried. The sight of the waves becomes stored in
one area, whereas the crash of the surf goes elsewhere, and the smell of
seaweed in yet another place. There could be advantages to having memories
spread around the brain. “You can reawaken that memory from any one of the
sensory triggers,” says Gottfried. “Maybe the smell of the sun lotion, or a
particular sound from that day, or the sight of a rock formation.” Or – in
the case of an early hunter and gatherer (out on a plain – the sight of a
lion might be enough to trigger the urge to flee, rather than having to
wait for the sound of its roar and the stench of its hide to kick in as
well.
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D
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Remembered
smells may also carry extra emotional baggage, says Herz. Her research
suggests that memories triggered by odours are more emotional than memories
triggered by other cues. In one recent study, Herz recruited five
volunteers who had vivid memories associated with a particular perfume,
such as opium for Women and Juniper Breeze from Bath and Body Works. She
took images of the volunteers’ brains as they sniffed that perfume and an
unrelated perfume bottle.) Smelling the specified perfume activated the
volunteers brains the most, particularly in the amygdala, and in a region
called the hippocampus, which helps in memory formation. Herz published the
work earlier this year in the journal Neuropsychologia.
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But she
couldn’t be sure that the other senses wouldn’t also elicit a strong
response. Do in another study Herz compared smells with sounds and
pictures. She had 70 people describe an emotional memory involving three
items – popcorn, fresh-cut grass and a campfire. Then they compared the
items through sights, sounds and smells. For instance, the person might see
a picture of a lawnmower, then sniff the scent of grass and finally listen
to the lawnmower’s sound. Memories triggered by smell were more evocative
than memories triggered by either sights or sounds.
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Odour-evoked
memories may be not only more emotional but more detailed as well. Working
with colleague John Downes, psychologist Simon Chu of the University of
Liverpool started researching odour and memory partly because of his
grandmother’s stories about Chinese culture. As generations gathered to
share oral histories, they would pass a small pot of spice or incense
around; later, when they wanted to remember the story in as much detail as
possible, they would pass the same smell around again. “It’s kind of fits
with a lot of anecdotal evidence on how smells can be really good reminders
of past experiences,” Chu says. And scientific research seems to bear out
the anecdotes. In one experiment, Chu and Downes asked 42 volunteers to
tell a life story, the tested to see whether odours such as coffee and
cinnamon could help them remember more detail in the story. They could.
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Despite such
studies, not everyone is convinced that Proust can be scientifically
analysed. In the June issue of Chemical Senses, Chu and Downes exchanged
critiques with renowned perfumer and chemist J. Stephan Jellinek. Jellinek
chided the Liverpool researches for, among other things, presenting the
smells and asking the volunteers to think of memories, rather than seeing
what memories were spontaneously evoked by the odours. But there’s only so
much science can do to test a phenomenon that’s inherently different for
each person, Chu says. Meanwhile, Jellinek has also been collecting
anecdotal accounts of Proustian experiences, hoping to find some common
links between the experiences. “I think there is a case to be made that
surprise maybe major aspect memories.” No one knows whether Proust ever experienced
such a transcendental moment. But his notions of memory, written as fiction
nearly a century ago, continue to inspire scientists of today.
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Questions 14-18
Use the information in the passage to
match the people (listed A-C) with opinions or deeds below.
Write the appropriate letters A-C
in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
NB You
may use any letter more than once
A
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Rachel Herz
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B
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Simon Chu
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C
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Jay Gottfried
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14
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Found pattern of different sensory memories stored in various zones
of the brain.
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15
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Smell brings detailed event under the smell of a certain substance.
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16
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Connection
of smell and certain zones of the brain is different from that of other
senses.
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17
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Diverse locations of stored information help us keep away the
hazard.
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18
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There is
no necessary correlation between smell and processing zone of the brain.
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Question 19-22
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxer 19-22 on
your answer sheet.
19
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What does the experiment
conducted by Herz show?
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A
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Women are
more easily addicted to opium medicine
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B
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Smell is
superior to other senses in connection to the brain
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C
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Smell is more
important than other senses
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D
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certain part
of the brain relates the emotion to the sense of smell
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20
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What does the
second experiment conducted by Herz suggest?
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A
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Result
directly conflicts with the first one
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B
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Result of her
first experiment is correct
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C
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Sights and
sounds trigger memories at an equal level
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D
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Lawnmower is a perfect example in the
experiment
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21
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What is the
outcome of an experiment conducted by Chu
and Downes?
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A
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smell is the
only functional under Chinese tradition
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B
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half of the
volunteers told detailed stories
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C
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smells of
certain odours assist storytellers
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D
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odours of
cinnamon are stronger than that of coffee
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22
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What is the
comment of Jellinek to Chu and Downes in the issue of Chemical Senses:
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A
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Jellinek
accused their experiment of being unscientific
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B
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Jellinek
thought Liverpool is not a suitable place for experiment
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C
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Jellinke
suggested that there was no further clue of what specific memories aroused
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D
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Jellinek
stated that the experiment could be remedied
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Questions 23-26
Summary
Complete
the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage
Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from
the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 23-26
on your answer sheet.
In the experiments conducted by UCL, participants were asked to look
at a picture with the scent of a flower, then in the next stage, everyone
would have to 23………………………..for a connection. A method called
24………………………suggested that specific area of the brain named 25…………………….were
quite active. Then in another paralleled experiment about Chinese elders,
storytellers could recall detailed anecdotes when smelling a bowl of
26………………….. or incense around.
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