为什么气味会引发如此生动的记忆?

为什么气味会引发如此生动的记忆?

The smell of a newly mowed lawn may take back to your childhood days tumbling in the backyard. Maybe catching a whiff of a certain perfume instantly reminds you of your mom.

刚修剪过的草坪的气味可能会让你回想起在后院翻滚的童年时光。也许闻到某种香水的味道会让你立刻想起你的妈妈。

Some scents give you a strong emotional rush. (Photo: mimagephotography/Shutterstock)

Why do smells have the power to trigger such strong memories? The answer is in your brain.

为什么气味能激发如此强烈的记忆?答案就在你的脑子里。

Normally, when you hear, see, touch or taste something, that information goes to the thalamus. It then sends it to the important areas in the brain, including the amygdala and hippocampus.

正常情况下，当你听到、看到、触摸或品尝某样东西时，这些信息会进入丘脑。然后将其发送到大脑的重要区域，包括杏仁核和海马体。

But it's a whole different ballgame with smells. They skip the thalamus and head right to the olfactory bulb, which helps the brain process odors. The olfactory bulb is directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, Curiosity points out.

但这是一场完全不同的关于气味的比赛。它们跳过丘脑，直接进入嗅球，帮助大脑处理气味。好奇号指出，嗅球直接与杏仁核和海马体相连。

This immediate link might explain why a smell can instantly trigger a vivid memory. Although humans are so visually oriented, it's interesting that smells would have such an impact in the brain.

这种直接的联系也许可以解释为什么一种气味可以立即引发生动的记忆。虽然人类是视觉导向的，但有趣的是气味会对大脑产生如此大的影响。

Emotions, not memories

情绪,而不是记忆

If you experience it in an unfamiliar context, a familiar smell may trigger emotions, but not memories. (Photo: Kusmartsev Volodymyr/Shutterstock)

Interestingly, sometimes a smell will trigger strong emotions, but you may not actually recall the memory behind those feelings.

有趣的是，有时一种气味会引发强烈的情绪，但你可能并不记得这些情绪背后的记忆。

Sometimes the memory behind the emotional response never resurfaces. You just feel the feelings of whatever happened, but don't remember what you experienced, Rachel Herz, an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University in Rhode Island, tells LiveScience.

有时，情绪反应背后的记忆永远不会重现。你只是感觉到了所发生的一切，却不记得你经历了什么。Rachel Herz是罗德岛布朗大学精神病学和人类行为的副教授，她告诉LiveScience。

If you smell a long-lost scent when you're walking down the street and it's something you used to smell in your home growing up, for example, it will be difficult to place because you're experiencing it in a different situation. You'll still feel an emotional rush, but you might not have the associated memories.

比如，你在街上走的时候闻到一种久违的味道，而这种味道是你在家里长大时闻到的，那么你就很难把它放在什么地方，因为你是在一个不同的环境中体验到的。你仍然会感到情绪激动，但你可能没有相关的记忆。

Words versus smells

词汇和气味

The smell of apple pie might instantly remind you of grandma, but the words don't have the same effect. (Photo: Brent Hofacker/Shutterstock)

Researchers have found that smells invoke more memories than the words that describe those smells. For example, the scent of a freshly baked apple pie might immediately zip you back to your grandmother's kitchen. But just hearing someone say "apple pie," might not give you the same trip down memory lane.

研究人员发现，气味比描述气味的词汇更能唤起记忆。例如，新鲜出炉的苹果派的香味可能会立刻把你拉回祖母的厨房。但是，仅仅听到有人说“苹果派”，可能不会给你同样的回忆。

In one study published in the journal Neuropsychologia, researchers found that memories triggered by a scent resulted in much more activity in the brain's limbic system than memories accompanied by just a word without any accompanying smell. So, for example, people responded much more emphatically when they smelled a rose than when they just heard the word "rose."

在发表在《神经心理学》杂志上的一项研究中，研究人员发现，由气味触发的记忆在大脑边缘系统中的活动要比只伴随着一个没有任何气味的单词的记忆活跃得多。例如，当人们闻到玫瑰时，他们的反应要比听到“玫瑰”这个词时强烈得多。

Merely hearing the word didn't conjure up the emotional response and memories as the immediate visceral reaction triggered by the scent.

仅仅是听到这个词，并没有像闻到气味时立即的本能反应那样唤起情感反应和记忆。

"Smells do bring back memories," Dr. Ken Heilman, professor of neurology and health psychology at the University of Florida, tells NBC News. "Smell goes into the emotional parts of the brain and the memory parts, whereas words go into thinking parts of the brain."

“气味确实能唤起记忆，”佛罗里达大学神经学和健康心理学教授肯·海尔曼博士告诉NBC新闻。“嗅觉进入大脑的情感部分和记忆部分，而语言则进入大脑的思考部分。”