Scents such as pumpkin pie, cinnamon buns, licorice, and
linen are among the fragrances that elicit potent emotional and physiological reactions
in humans. All over the world, certain fragrances have even been attributed to
many things: lavender is often heralded as a sleep aid, which helps calm the nerves;
peppermint has been claimed to help reduce stress, and cinnamon relieves fatigue.
Such is the supposed effect of scents that home interiors are increasingly being
laced with them.
However, two questions linger in connection: how and why? Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov once said that “nothing
revives the past so completely as a smell which was once associated with it”. Psychologist
Rachel Herz from Brown University agrees, claiming that smell is distinct from other
senses since it is connected directly to the olfactory cortex—the portion of
the brain responsible for emotions and memory.
In addition, the olfactory cortex is also directly linked
to the limbic system, which is considered as the ‘seat of emotion’. The cortex receives
smell sensations and facilitates ‘cognitive recognition,’ only after the deepest
parts of the brain have been stimulated. This is how we’re able to tell specific
scents from others and associate such a smell with an emotional response.
