2025-01-20 – News – www.theguardian.com
Smell has an outsize effect on our thoughts and moods, so it’s worth paying more attention to it
If you have been on holiday recently, do you think you could recall and describe what the place smelled like? You probably don’t get asked that question very often. And yet, the characteristic smell of a place seems to contain its special essence. Photos can’t truly bring back the feeling of being there, but smell has that power.
Our sense of smell develops before we’re born, and it is strongly linked to brain centres associated with creating new memories and perceiving emotions and bodily sensations. As a result, smells can merge these together, forming vividly personal memories. Most of us have smells that act as a trigger, transporting us to another time and place; for some it is the ocean breeze in summer, for others it might be urban smells of coffee houses, exhaust fumes or a hot pavement on a sunny day. I remember moving to Chicago after completing my PhD in Sweden 15 years…
