Smells light up the bulb and the olfactory cortex, which is why they arouse memories more than other sensations. As happens to other mammals, individuals of our species are also influenced by what they smell, even in the choice of partner.
Proust was right, with his fragrant madeleines that brought memories back to the surface. We are much more affected by the smell of what we believe, convinced that we are guided above all by sight, hearing and in any case by the intellect: we think that the sense of smell is “animalistic“And in some ways it is a bit like that, given that as explained by Sara Spinelli of the Sensory Lab (DAGRI) of the University of Florence” The sense of smell is closely linked to the emotional sphere: perfumes directly arouse much more memories and emotions of other sensations, such as texture or colors ».
The hippocampus
The intuition of the French writer has found numerous confirmations in science: according to many researchers the anatomical proximity in the brain of the olfactory system with the structures that process emotions, such as the amygdala, or memory, such as the hippocampus, causes the sensations experienced while smelling a smell are “filed together”. A hypothesis confirmed in recent weeks by research published on Cerebral Cortexwho proved how odors, in addition to igniting the bulb and the olfactory cortex, also activate brain structures involved in the processing of emotions reward circuits: the combination of these effects means that as soon as we smell something we can “categorize” it as pleasant or not, at the same time creating an olfactory autobiographical memory which will then be recovered when we smell that same scent again, just as it happened to Proust with sweets. Smells then awaken emotions even if we don’t want to: this was demonstrated by a study by the Dutch University of Wageningen according to which after just 100 milliseconds from when we are exposed to an essence we manifest what it causes us with the expression of the face, in just 400 milliseconds also changes the heart rate.
Marketing
Effects so evident that they have also been studied by marketing experts, for example to encourage purchases by spreading fragrances in stores that in the majority of people arouse positive feelings. We also do this with the perfume we choose to wear: a study by anthropologists from the University of Prague has verified that the favorite fragrance must never cover our body odor, but mix well with it, creating a new aroma perceived as pleasant.
Immune system
The same that we unconsciously try to find in a partner: through the “sweaty shirt tests”, in which a group of volunteers are made to smell shirts used by others, it was possible to verify that the human nose can distinguish who has a system immune system more dissimilar to one’s own and therefore more attractive, because any offspring will have a lower risk of genetic diseases and a stronger immune system, both of which are advantageous in terms of evolution. The tests they then showed that women prefer the smell of men who are socially dominant or with genes more compatible with their own, while males are able to detect women who are in the ovulation phase by nose.
Cortisol
In short, individuals of our species, just like many other mammals, are very influenced by what they smell even in the choice of partner, as confirmed by data collected by Claire Wyart of the University of Berkeley that demonstrate the appearance of changes in salivary concentrations of cortisol. the stress hormone, in women who have smelled male sweat: it means that even the hormonal balances are altered, when we “sniff” certain smells more or less compatible with ours. All unconscious reactions, like that recorded in front of the lemon scent of a detergent: it is enough to feel it in the air to unconsciously tend to keep the place where we are cleaner. A few hours after an infection and the related immune response, the body odor changes and we are able to perceive it: a defense mechanism from its own contagious and therefore dangerous that also the human species has, according to experiments of the Swedish Karolinska Institutet.
February 6, 2022 (change February 6, 2022 | 19:49)
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