Purpose: To inform the
audience on the functions of smell and its ties to emotion and memory.
Thesis: We will explore
the science behind smell and the sensory nature of the nose, we will discuss
the positive and negative emotions associated with it, why we associate smell
so strongly with memories, and our subsequent reactions to the smells with
which we have familiarized ourselves.
I. Introduction
1.
Attention
Getter: You have arrived at your
grandmother’s house. It is the first time you have been there since you were
very little, maybe five or six years old. The scenery of the trees and the
buildings and the streets look vaguely familiar as you ride in the backseat of
your parents’ car. It looks familiar but it doesn’t warrant any feelings of
nostalgia. Of course, you are glad to be able to see her. But perhaps the
excitement has worn off, because it has been so long and you are older now and
have in part outgrown the excitement of seeing someone you are related to but
don’t really know. You arrive at her house and the feelings start to stir a
little more dramatically. You recognize this place. Scenes from your last
childhood trip out here start to come back. Your grandmother meets you at the
door and you are moved by your memory of her, and of her voice. But then you
step inside and she approaches you for a hug and your senses awaken. The smell.
Not only of her perfume, but of the house. The walls and the baking and some
plant that she keeps replanting. The potency of the memories and of your
affection for your grandmother heighten and once again, you are five years old.
This is a fresh reminder of that fleeting yet disarming moment in the mall, one
week earlier, when you passed a stranger who wore the same perfume or cologne
as someone you had dated for several months, and thoughts of that person once
again occupied your mind for the better part of that day.
2.
Relevancy
Statement: Something has happened
here, in both these cases. You know who your grandmother is, and you know who
your old flame is. You have seen them, in pictures, in your thoughts, in your
memories. You have seen things that reminded you of them. You may have even
heard them in videos or over the phone. All this time you have been reminding
yourself of these people. But it never quite hits you until you are introduced
to, of all things, their aroma. So what is it about the sense of smell that is
so powerful?
3.
Credibility
Statement: Although some people
lack a sense of smell, this is a familiar topic for most people. Isn’t that true?
Isn’t smell a finely honed way for us to recognize something we have already
known? Do not several species of animals both detect danger and find food based
on nothing more than smell?
4.
Reveal
Topic: I wish to inform you on
why it is that the sense of smell is so evocative.
5.
Preview: In doing so, we will explore the science behind
smell and the sensory nature of the nose, we will discuss the positive and
negative emotions associated with it, why we associate smell so strongly with
memories, and our subsequent reactions to the smells with which we have
familiarized ourselves.
II. Body
Paragraph
1.
Anatomy
of Smell: Neuroscientist Dr.
Howard Eichenbaum has said, “There’s something very interesting about the
anatomy of the olfactory system and the memory system of the brain that
probably explains why it has this unique power to transport one back in time to
a particular phase in their life or a particular day.” According to him, the
olfactory system, that is the system dealing with our sense of smell, has
direct access to the temporal lobe, where our memories are organized. While
other sensory systems like vision or touch or hearing have multiple synapses,
or connections, to go through in detection, the olfactory system is directly
connected to the hippocampus, amygdala, and parts of the hypothalamus. These
parts of our brain deal with memory, emotional, and certain decision-making
processes.
2.
Anatomy
cont’d: Smell is a telereceptive
sense, like vision and hearing. It does not require bodily contact, but rather
gathers information about our environment extending beyond our body. The
olfactory process is unique in the fact that it includes fewer synapses than
vision or hearing, and that is why we smell and register things unconsciously,
almost so much as breathing. Previously, experts believed that humans were
capable of sensing up to 10,000 smells. Recent studies have adjusted that
number slightly, to one trillion. That is because we are always, always, always
smelling things. We will continue to discuss the biological processes behind
smell as we examine, right now, some of the evocative affects that smell has on
the body and mind.
III. Body
Paragraph
1.
Intro: Our sense of smell has a direct influence on the
amygdala, which is the part of your brain that deals with emotions. According
to psychologist and writer David Ludden, interpreted information that comes
through the eyes and ears can be influenced by smell because it happens. We
form associations based on what we see and what we hear with the smell that
accompanies it, which is why, in grandma’s case, we see a house, we see a car,
we trees, etc. but these things don’t act as emotional instigators quite as
powerfully until they are accompanied by the smell of grandma’s house. A smell is
a much more specific interpretation of an event or a thing, while we see things
like cars and houses all the time and derive from a larger database to access.
2.
Scientific
smells: Some smells
scientifically are emotional triggers. According to Jeanette Haviland-Jones of
Rutgers University, “floral odors” are mood manipulators and can increase one’s
general happiness as well as productive social interaction. Other
aromatherapists will suggest an innumerable number of products that increase
your well-being. Conversely, some smells affect more than just the olfactory
system, but also the somatosensory system, which includes the nerve endings in
our nostrils that are sensitive to temperature and pain. Thus, according to
“The Smell Report,” some unpleasant odors can actually cause us physical pain.
3.
Anecdote: One afternoon in high school, my friend
and I were at the mall and with a loss of anything better to do we were
wandering around, looking at stuff, and we eventually wound up in the Yankee
Candle store. We spent a good deal of time there smelling the different candles
and air fresheners. I ended up getting an air freshener I used for that
following summer, whose smell I now associate with everything I did that
summer, including things I have a hard time recalling when I just think about
the sights and sounds involved. And when I smell a Yankee candle, regardless of
the scent, I think of the things we did on that typical high school day.
4.
Drive
it home: The stories I
could tell are endless. Smells evoke a particular time and place and we
associate an emotion with it based on the speed by which we process stimuli
through our sensory systems. Smell acts as the perfect emotional companion for
memories of what we see, hear, and touch because of its direct link to the amygdala
and how it helps us process more complicated senses.
IV. Body
Paragraph
1.
Rats: Smells are an aid to us in not only the
long-term nostalgic memories, but also in our short-term memory, and our
sensory memory. Dr. Eichenbaum performed an experiment with rats having to do
with smell and memory, and discovered that a rat could remember where the food
was based on the smell that they used to accompany it, and they could remember
it for up to a week.
2.
Us: Though an animal’s sense of smell is scientifically
proven to be much more acute than a human’s, we still use our smell in the
identifying and memory process. Studies show that people and specifically women
are quite adept at identifying their romantic partners based on smell. In one
study where men were asked to rate a woman’s attractiveness while being exposed
to different odors, the women were rated significantly less attractive when the
men were exposed to the smell of, believe it or not, women’s tears: this proves
a humorous example of how our stored memory associates the use of smell.
3.
More: I ask you to consider, what is your
favorite smell? Or what is a smell that you love? Why do you like it so much?
When was the last time you smelled it? Can you remember the first time you
smelled it? What people or places come to mind when you smell it? Your answers,
based on memories, indicate the powerful ability of smell to, as Dr. Eichenbaum
explains it, “transport us back in time.”
V. Body
Paragraph
1.
Intro: My girlfriend has a huge aversion to lots of
different types of foods. This is unfortunate for me because I’ll eat basically
anything, and a lot of my favorite foods are on her blacklist. What smells do
you have a strong dislike for? Why, do you know? Also, and more importantly, do
you know that you have a particular smell; a smell that is
unique to you?
2.
Body
odors: My best friend growing
up lives in a house pretty close to mine. I would go over frequently. To this
day I can identify exactly the smell of his house. And the funny thing is, he
can do the same thing for my house. I didn’t even know my house had a smell.
That is because we are oblivious to our personal smells. An eye-opening
experience happened when I was a missionary in Mexico and living with almost
exclusively Mexican young men like myself. One of them told me that white
people have a distinct smell. And it’s true, it’s true for every race and
ethnicity. Genetics have a large part to do with our smell, and when we seek
for a compatible mate, for instance, we do not seek one with a similar smell to
us. This is all done unconsciously. Reproduction is often defined by experts as
producing “fresh genes” in the next generation. There is a great article about
this by David Ludden titled “You Smell. And That’s a Good Thing” that I highly
recommend.
3.
More: Thus we see that our likes and dislikes have a
high correlation with our sense of smell. Smell also affects your
decision-making processes performed in the frontal lobe of your brain. A smell
is interpreted and you judge it as either being good or bad, thus influencing
the amygdala which associates an emotion with it being good or bad.
4.
And
more: Have you ever
tried to describe an indescribable smell? According to Dr. Eichenbaum, we
usually attempt one of two different methods to describe these: by judging the
smells as being “good” or “bad,” or by comparing it to things that smell
similar, thus presenting an association.
5.
Like
the present: Even now, you are
creating judgments. And you are creating memories, both of which are
unconsciously based on what you are smelling. You can react to these memories
in a couple different ways. Some memories will be discarded, some will come
back to you when you least expect it and some you may be unable to identify.
But you’ll know it from somewhere.
VI. Conclusion
1.
Conclusion
Summary: Thus we see, from all of
this, that one’s sense of smell can be extremely powerful. It recalls memories
of places, people, or things long (or short) past and can reach farther back
than we can probably ever determine. Smells we may be blind to are part of what
define us. They dictate what we eat, where we go, with whom we associate, and
how we feel as a whole. Grandma’s house became such as soon as you stepped in
and those familiar scents washed over you. The scent of that stranger in the
mall may have been a nice trip down memory lane, but soon the smells to which
you are oblivious today will be another nostalgic trigger. While these
particular examples may not be specific to you, your sense of smell and its
connection to memory and emotion are undeniable and scientifically confirmed.
More importantly, however, you may now understand the importance of your sense
of smell in its relation to brain processes such as memory and emotion.
2.
Closing
Statement: This sensory program
never ceases to amaze me, and I will continue to seek to understand even more
just what about it attracts me so.
Works Cited Page
Koerth-Baker, Maggie. “The Surprising Impact of Taste and Smell.”
LiveScience, 2008, September 30,
2015.
Ludden, David. “You Smell. And That’s a Good Thing.” Psychology Today, September 23, 2015.
September 30,
2015.
“The Smell Report.” Social
Issues Research Centre, 2014. September 30, 2015.
Suzuki, Wendy. “Totally
Cerebral: What’s That Smell?” 2015, Podcast, PRX.
Welsh, Jennifer. “Smell of Success: Scents Affect Thoughts,
Behaviors.” LiveScience,
September 30,
2015.
Whitlock, Eric. Personal
Interview. 1 October 2015 (scheduled)
Williams, Sarah C.P. “Human Nose Can Detect One Trillion Smells.”
AAAS, October 14, 2015. March
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