Science explains smell and memory

The connection between smell and memory is not arbitrary and it isn’t just theory: it’s science. Back in 2004, a scientist named Dr. Linda Buck actually won the Nobel Prize in physiology after studying how humans can differentiate thousands of smells. Some estimates say that the average human brain can tell the difference between 10,000 different smells that range from freshly baked bread to a favorite barbecue recipe.

What Buck’s studies proved was a connection between smelling particular scents and the memories they trigger. It turns out that there are tiny bundles of nerve cells inside the human nose that can differentiate between scents. Dr. Buck discovered that when those cells detected a scent, it was within the same sensory area that humans use to store memories.