Study on the Human Sense of Smell
Study on the Human Sense of Smell
"What I remember most vividly is the aroma of toast at the old drugstore lunch counter. It was like no other. I don’t know why; we toasted the same white bread at home, but it never smelled as good or as intensely as it did in the drugstores. Maybe it was the high-volume buildup that did it. I loved that aroma. It made me feel good just to inhale it. Sometimes today, I’ll walk blocks out of my way to shop for something I don’t need at Kaufman’s on Lexington Avenue – the only pharmacy I know of that still maintains a real lunch counter – to drink in that toasty aroma" (qtd. in Engen 1991).
Sniff a rose or freshly cut grass. Scents evoke many images and sensations so common we don’t even give them much thought. The olfactory system, which senses and processes odors, is one of the oldest and most vital parts of the brain. Despite the tendency of humans to underestimate the role of smell in our every day lives, for most mammals, smell is the most important sense. Dogs are probably the most obvious example of this, it is their primary mode of communication and influences many important functions, including reproduction and taste. Scientists are just beginning to learn how the olfactory system works.
At the time Rachel Herz began her work with Olfaction, there had been relatively few studies on odor and memory (Holloway 1999). Researchers knew that the olfactory system was unique among the senses and that the primary olfactory cortex, in which higher-level processing of olfactory information takes place, forms a direct link with the limbic system, including the amygdala and hippocampus (Weiten 2000). Researchers could also trace the physiological path
of a smell through the brain. It was known that after an odor molecule enters the nose and is recognized by the olfactory sensors, the signals are eventually sent to the olfactory bulb that is located right above the eyes (Passer 2001). The signals only go to two areas in the olfactory bulb, and signals from different sensors are targeted to different spots that then form a sensory map. From there the signals reach the olfactory area of the cortex (2001). An important quality of the olfactory system...