How smells can boost children’s learning and pleasure | Aeon Essays

When we smell, we remember. In fact, research has shown that the memories associated with smell are the most powerful, vivid, and emotional of all our recollections.

Scent is the only sense that is directly linked to the memory and emotional learning centers of the brain, says  Rachel Herz , a neuroscientist at Brown University and an expert on the psychological science of smell. 

Experts tell us that smell is the most faithful of all the senses in terms of memory. The smells of one’s childhood still remain within. It is incredible how a simple scent on a street or in a room can bring you back years to an experience you had long forgotten.

The smell is a link to the experience. Or has hearing a song released a whole stream of memories in your mind?

directly to our hippocampus, our amygdala (an emotion-processing center), and our olfactory cortex (which not only deals with smells but is involved in complex memory, learning, and decision-making tasks), triggering a host of thoughts, feelings, and recollections—yet more likely than not, we note neither smell nor memory.

Sights, smells, and sounds can trigger related thoughts and ideas, making them more top of mind.