(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

What your nose knows brings forth vibrant memories, more so than your eyes, your touch or even your taste. Indeed, your sense of smell - by and large - is why you can taste those delicious flavours of your favourite foods.

What you smell can transport you to specific moments in time, even decades ago, all with a simple sniff. I was driving with windows down on a beautiful Fall day years ago and passed a family - mom, dad and two kids - cooking wieners over an open campfire in their backyard.

In an instant the smell of the burning oak limbs of that fire took me back to another Fall day in 1956. I was six years old, and my brother, Clark, and I were roasting wieners over the glowing embers of an oak campfire in my family’s backyard in Anthony, FL, on branches my father cut and sharpened from a Sweetgum tree. The family dog - a Hienz 57 mutt named Pal - danced around the fire, his eyes fixed on the wieners.

It was like I was there again. I glanced in the rear view mirror and I was smiling. I took another deep breath before I drove away. Are we all so scent-imental? Yes, pretty much if you have a sense of smell.

Another time…30 years after my high school girlfriend…I walked past a woman at the make-up counter of a New York City department store. I stopped in my tracks…she was wearing the perfume my high school sweetheart wore, Shalimar. There I was staring at her over the counter, before she asked quizzically, “May I help you?” Again, I smiled, and replied, “No, you just remind me of someone.”

It’s called the “Proust Effect”…in 1913, writer Marcel Proust described in “Swann’s Way” how the smell of the pastry he dipped in his tea brought joy that he remembered from his childhood. Ever since, researchers have explored how our brains process what we smell and why they deliver such vivid memories.

Scientists found that olfactory cues - smells - are more effective triggers for clear and emotional memories than photographs. They used brain scans to measure brain activity as people performed various mental tasks…and determine which parts of the brain are involved as people remember the past in response to odours and pictures.

They discovered the same parts of the brain that process emotions are more active with smells than when viewing old photographs and letters. The olfactory bulb - a neural structure in the upper back of the nose - sends information about what we smell to the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus - all in the brain’s frontal lobe - which deals with our emotions, memories and learning.

When I was a student at the University of Florida back in the 1970s, a friend and next door neighbour was going to medical school, and researching how the brain interprets our sense of smell. He told me something I put to immediate use.

“If you chew gum - say Juicy Fruit - while you’re studying for an exam, then chew it when you take that exam, you’re more likely to remember what you studied,” he said. Turns out, he’s right.

As a gastronome, I know how important the nose is in tasting both food and wine. Most of what you perceive as taste…is actually what you smell. When we chew food, you smell the molecules of those foods…and fully 95 percent of what you taste…are the aromas of food or the bouquet of wines.

Hold your nose and eat both chocolate and vanilla ice cream…you’ll sense sweetness…but no flavours. We also tend to smell in colour…associating citrus-flavoured mandarin with the colours orange, yellow and green. When smelling a grassy scents, we associate them with greens and browns.

Unfortunately our sense of smell tends to grow less acute as we age…but you can do something about that natural loss.

Throughout the day - as you walk or drive - concentrate on smells. Admittedly, some might not be all that pleasant…but you’ll sharpen your ability to smell. Your nose and sense of smell are a little like a muscle…workout and you stay in shape. Do it enough and your memory might improve.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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