Have you ever felt a childhood smell unexpectedly transport you to a memory of the past? A neuroscientific study published in the journal Current Biology reveals that the first smells occupy a privileged place in the brain , which explains why olfactory memory can become so vivid.
"The first time we associate an object with an odor , a deep imprint is created in the brain," explains Yaara Yeshurun, from the Weizmann Institute in Israel, who clarifies that this happens for both pleasant and unpleasant odors. "According to our previous paradigm, the first olfactory associations and the later ones were remembered with equal intensity, but we have verified that this is not the case, that there is a special memory the first time we smell something, which is created in our brain by the regions of the hippocampus and the amídgala ", clarifies Yeshurun. According to the researchers, it is a privileged mark , and by observing the nervous system at the time of exposure it would be possible to predict which olfactory association will be remembered. Knowing how it works could help erase traumatic memories , Yeshurun predicts.
