Smell and your memory

Macdonsk

Macdonsk

Macdonsk

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Anybody experienced the sudden unlocking of forgotten memories triggered by the odour of an item or the smell of the environment you have just entered?

I went to help a friend move into into their new flat and one of the rooms must had been for a child as there was a smell of play doh and plasticine in the air.

It's really weird that for a split second i had a vivid, bright, colour picture of some wooden playing blocks formed in a circle and in this circle was a collection of toy including a James Bond Aston Martin, a Thunderbird 2 and an Eagle space ship from the Sci-Fi show Space 1999.

Looking back through family photos, my brothers and i had all these items back in the early 70's

It just makes me wonder if all our memories from newborn to end of life are all still there, just not easily accessible.
 
It's not a very popular fragrance these days but whenever I smell Poison by Christian Dior it always reminds me of my much younger days and a rather fun fumble at a Uni house party.

Scent has a very, very strong recall effect for most people although I don't pretend to remember the science behind it. Which is ironic I suppose.
 
Aniseed. That smell always reminds me of a friends 18th birthday bash that I went to. I was drinking spirits and also lots of Pernod and the subsequent hangover was epic. Not a fond memory. Never touched Pernod or anything aniseed since.
 
Certain songs make me think of Lineage 2 as I used to listen to them when I was playing that game.

But yes, I sometimes get childhood memories from smells. All good.
 
fumes from the motorboats from holidays as a kid in st annes , a little older the smell of the skateboard shop ,kryptonics bones ect and castrol r 2 stroke as a teenager
similar smells bring back vivid memorys
 
I've had this a few times. It freaks me out because it's instant nostalgia and familiarity but I can't always recall the memory. I then get engrossed in it, trying to figure it out. When I can recall the memory it's a great feeling.
 
Macdonsk said:
Anybody experienced the sudden unlocking of forgotten memories triggered by the odour of an item or the smell of the environment you have just entered?
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Yes. It's not hugely rare. Smell is a very primal sense and thus a good trigger.

It just makes me wonder if all our memories from newborn to end of life are all still there, just not easily accessible.
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That doesn't seem to be how human memory works with the possible exception of very rare cases of hyperthemesia (sp?) in which people remember, accurately and in detail, massive amounts of their own life. In general, though, it looks like memories are quite patchy and most of what we think are memories are our own minds filling in the gaps. Some details are remembered and the rest is made up to fit the details and what the person expects to have happened to fit those details plus anything else they've been told or have seen or are seeing at the time. Hence, for example, the famous "Disney Bugs Bunny" experiments.
 
Smell in our evolutionary ancestors will have played a key role in memory, as it does in many mammals today. A cat, for instance, may forget your face but they can remember your unique smell for the rest of their lives and identify you from that if you have been significant to them.
Humans have traded smell sensitivity for sight (our sense of smell is pathetic compared to a dog or a cat), but the memory trigger role of smell remains from our genetic past.
 
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Mmm that happens to me quite often.

I've never managed to identify my favourite smell completely, but I went to the Devil's Arse in the Peak District when I was a kid and they had these hemp ropes, and they gave us a bit of them for some reason. That does take me right back to the moment.
 
Yes!

a few weeks ago our neighbours were cooking something which made me remember my late grandmother. That was a nice memory.

There is also a weird smell (no idea what it is) which reminds me of being put to sleep on the operating table when I was about 8 years old. That's not so nice.
 
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