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The memories shown in my exhibit originate from smell. Although some memories are tied to taste, our sense of smell is responsible for 80% of what we taste, meaning that smell is even important to the food-related memories!
As humans, smell is not one of our primary senses. However, what we smell (or taste), can lead us to feel emotions or remember descriptive memories, even more than our other senses.
How does scent allow this to happen?
Smelling is linked to memory due to how close the structures responsible for olfaction, emotion, and memory are within the brain.
When we smell something, the odor is detected by sensory neurons within the nose. These neurons send electrical signals to the olfactory bulb, where the signal is then identified in the brain.
The olfactory bulb is apart of the limbic system: The part of the brain responsible for translating sensory information into motivation and behavior. Two other key components of this system include the amygdala (responsible for emotion) and the hippocampus (responsible for memory and association).
But why would our sense of smell be more directly tied to memory than our other senses?
Although all of the senses are processed within the brain, no other sense is located as closely to the memory and emotion centers as the network responsible for olfaction.
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