THE POWER OF ODOUR AND TASTE IN TRIGGERING OF MEMORIES

INTRODUCTION-

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the aroma of freshly baked brownies brings back the memories of your grandmother's baking? or when you pass through a swimming pool, the smell of the chlorinated water brings back the memories of your childhood? or the taste of madeleine cake dipped in tea reminded you off your aunt who used to give it to you on a Sunday morning? Yes, this phenomenon is very common and has happened to all of us either voluntarily or involuntarily. This phenomenon is termed as the "PROUST EFFECT" or the "PROUST PHENOMENON." This phenomenon is described in 'Swann's Way',the opening chapter of Proust's novel.

It has been discovered that the Proust effect happens gradually and largely unconsciously, particularly in the implicit memory systems.

• THE MAKING OF SENSE MEMORIES IN THE BRAIN-

Many areas of the brain are active during a Proust effect. The crucial areas of the brain have a clear function-The hippocampus collects memory pathways across multiple sensory domains, the amygdalae adds emotion to the experience, and the frontal lobe supervises the coherence and consistency of the memories. These cerebral functions have been linked to the creative process that an artist goes through. The Proust effect is a collection of sensory perceptions, feelings, and bodily sensations that combined give a new meaning and insight to an episode from someone's past . Although,It is not an exact recreation of the past. Between the ages of six and eleven, childhood memories are more frequently associated with smells. Beginning at age eleven, memories become more vivid and are more often remembered through words and narratives. The chemical signature of an odour is first detected by the neurons in the nose. The signals are then accumulated by the main olfactory bulb in the cortex of the brain. The olfactory bulb transports the odours to the other parts of the brain. Through those pathways odour signals reach areas involved in conscious perception of odours and limbic areas such as-amygdala, hippocampus and hypothalamus that are involved in emotional, memorial and motivational responses respectively. An odour can trigger the memory of a specific event that is highly important to the person recalling it. Odours are thus able to penetrate to the emotional layers in the subconscious realms of the human psyche and trigger the associated memory along with thoughts, feelings and emotions initially experienced.With a better understanding of this process, we can regulate it for our own benefit in the future and be able to recall our most memorable experiences and memories with ease.

THE SPECIAL CONNECTION BETWEEN SCENT AND MEMORIES -

The close connection between the olfactory bulb, which processes smells, and the amygdala and hippocampus, which control emotion and memory, is one reason why fragrance can bring back vivid and emotional memories.

Afif J. Aqrabawi and Jun Chul Kim state that "the olfactory cortex in particular shares exclusive anatomical connections with the hippocampus due to their common evolutionary history."?

Perhaps aromatherapy is more widespread than most of us realise! The fragrance has taken a top priority throughout evolution. The 1,000 olfactory receptors we have are formed by just 3% of our genes. Doctors Buck and Axel received the Nobel Prize in 2004 for their explanation of how these receptors allow us to detect 10,000 different odours.

A particular scent may be encountered just once in life and so it becomes forever linked to a single event, visual or verbal versions of the same cue may be encountered again and again.Frequency of exposure may be an important factor in smell memory.The more uncommon the odour the more likely it can be associated with a unique memory.

Another reason odour can be suggestive of events in the past may follow a phenomenon known as PROACTIVE INTERFERENCE, the first association made to an odour interferes with formation of subsequent associations.eg.An attack of nausea shortly after scarfing down a Pepperoni Pizza will lead to a severe aversion to its smell, even if the stomach ailment was purely coincidental.The aversion will exist for a long time and will be hard to unlearn.

In RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE, in which an earlier association is lost when a new one is made, is weak for odours, but strong for verbal and visual associations.eg. Memorizing a new telephone number will make the old number hard to retrieve.

REASONS BEHIND TASTE AND MEMORY CONNECTIONS-

Proust did not invent the close connection between taste and memory. It has been demonstrated that memories and taste buds are related.Some researchers appear to believe that conditioned taste aversion, a human survival strategy, may be the root cause of the connection between food and memory. In a study published in 2018, psychology professor Kathleen C. Chambers discovered that "Conditioned taste aversion is a learned association between the taste of a particular food and illness such that the food is considered to be the cause of the illness." Our ancestors would bravely consume a strange plant, get sick, and then always remember to stay away from that plant in the future. The conditioning developed when humans discovered which foods to stay away from in order to survive and passed down from generation to generation.A 2014 study discovered a connection between the part of the brain involved in taste memory and the area that encodes the time and location of the taste experienced.?Additionally, recollections of being in a place where something good or bad occurred are connected to that taste. For instance, because you have pleasant memories connected to them, a piece of Jell-O salad can instantly transport you to a church luncheon. A cookie made of oatmeal can remind you of your grandmother's well-stocked cookie jar.In his book The Omnivorous Mind, John S. Allen explores the significant connection between memory and food. In an extract, he states that the hippocampus, a crucial component of memory, "has strong connections with parts of the brain that are important for emotion and for smell." It may be because food is associated with both feeling and smell that it appears to take precedence in our memory. Because of this, even if you aren't conscious of it, eating a piece of peach pie may instantly transport you to a dinner that has been recorded in your hippocampus.Allen further points out that since sweets tend to stimulate our brains' reward centres, they may be associated with greater memories. A short-term pleasurable experience, such as eating salt water taffy at the beach, can become a long-term memory that is triggered each time you bite into salt water taffy when those reward centres, in turn, excite the hippocampus. Similar to how treats like candy, cookies, ice cream, and the like are frequently given to kids as a special treat, they become even more recalled since they are linked to memorable childhood events. The belief that food doesn't merely taste good, but also feels good, is reinforced by the sense of nostalgia connected to pleasant memories of a joyful childhood.

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES WHERE PROUST PHENOMENON CAME INTO USE-

1.SMELL AND COLOUR IN NURSING HOMES:-

The power of sense memories has not only been used in the literary genre, but in other artistic disciplines too. A group of visual artists recently began designing and constructing installations, mostly in museums and galleries, which allow visitors to experience at their leisure taste and olfactory stimuli that have the power to activate subconscious sense memories.

The Flemish artist Peter de Cupere, for example, designs smell installations where visitors can activate and deactivate smells in order to envelop themselves in either a sweet-smelling or malodorous atmosphere. 16 For a nursing home in the Dutch town of Doetinchem, he designed three

'Smelloflowers' made from plastic-coated metal , one for each of the three residential pavilions for older persons with dementia, and each with its own distinct colour and scent. Each pavilion thus has its own

'departmental flower: the 'Hyagreencinth', the 'Tulorangeip', and the 'Magbluenolia'. Each flower is imbued with its own scent, which waits upwards from the calyx of the flower. The colours are repeated throughout the rooms in framed prints depicting the departmental flower'. The effect is to create orange, green, and blue areas in the nursing home.

The scents of the departmental flowers' can change in character with the revolving seasons. For example, the 'Hy agreencinths' give off the scent of pines around the Christmas period; another flower gives the smell of turkey around the pavilion, while the third spreads the aroma of pancakes. When spring comes around, the flowers give off the fresh scent of spring flowers.

The flowers can also be used for short periods to administer aromatherapies, for example. For people with dementia, their senses and memories of their youth are often all they have left to hold on to in their daily lives.

2.WARTIME FOOD BY EATING DESIGNER MARIIJIE VOGELZANG-

The Dutch food designer Marije Vogelzang carries out artistic projects in which the central focus is on the design and meanings of food. For a project in Rotterdam about memories of the Second World War bombardment of the city in 1940, for example, she designed an exhibition with dishes taken from the period. when the city was confronted with severe food shortages. The exhibition included small dishes of 'mock meat' ('Valsch vlees'), concocted from beans and flour. This elicited both positive and negative reactions from visitors who had experienced the War as children, and who remembered not only the hunger, but also the pleasure they felt when they did have something to eat, and the sense of bonding and togetherness they experienced whilst sharing a meal from the meagre rations.

3.TASTING ROOMS-

'Taste artists' like Marije Vogelzang are less in this world, but there are many chefs and restaurateurs who are experimenting with the interplay between the senses and the memory. Restaurants can be experimental tasting rooms. Restaurateurs, of course, understand better than anyone that people taste food not only with their tongue and nose, but also with their eyes, ears and the tactile sensors on their lips and in their mouths.

Tastes interact with other sensory impressions, and with memories, and subsequently embed themselves in the memory, creating a complete picture together with other impressions such as images of the restaurant interior, the sounds of cutlery clattering against porcelain, the background music, the voices of the diners and the shouting waiters, and the emotions of the evening (dining with a new lover or with old friends). One stores all of these impressions and then buries them deep in the memory of the senses, where they remain dormant until that same taste or a related taste reawakens them years later.

Tastes, like smells, have the peculiar property that they are difficult to extract from the memory through conscious effort. We often know that we tasted or smelt something for the first time somewhere, but are unable to recall or re-experience the taste memory at will. This veiling of taste and smell impressions by our sense memory takes place with enormous speed. In a restaurant, for example, when the waiter asks if I have enjoyed my meal I know whether or not it was good, but I can no longer recall precisely how it tasted. The taste impression has already been stored deep in my memory. If I later experience the same taste, everything comes to the surface again: the faces of my table mates, the interior of the restaurant, the background noise, the voices, the emotions, and so on. Accessing these memories is achieved much more quickly and accurately via sensory stimuli than through words.

CONCLUSION:

USE OF SCENT IN EVERYDAY LIFE TO ENHANCE MEMORIES:

Thus scents can be used to enhance one's memories. So, when you plan a trip next time, choose a pleasant scent that you like, carry it with you and use it for the duration of your holiday. When you use the same scent again after some time, you will be reminded of the pleasant and sweet memories of the trip.Nowadays, even aroma of a house or office is major business .Scents can also be used daily to harness feelings of calmness and relaxation. Using a peppermint scented candle will alleviate the stress levels giving a sense of relaxation.Thus if you come across a peppermint scent later in life, you will feel the same level of relaxation.According to White, building an association o scent and relaxation is very helpful .Imagine unwinding in a warm, lavender-scented bubble bath every night, she advises. "You'll start to connect the relaxing sensation of lavender with its scent. This implies that over time, even when you're not in the bath, you'll still feel relaxed when you smell lavender.

"NOTHING BRINGS TO LIFE AGAIN A FORGOTTEN MEMORY LIKE FRAGRANCE"

This article was written and shared as a part of my internships at Krsh Welfare Foundation

Krsh Welfare Foundation