Giving the nose the respect it deserves

Most powerful of all senses is smell

In today’s screen-based world, it can feel as if we rely almost exclusively on what we see.

Taste, touch and scent seem to play a minor role in our daily lives.

In truth, we rely on all our senses to inform us about our surroundings, as well as to regulate our mood and physical state.

Surprisingly, the most powerful of our senses is not sight, but smell. A particular scent can alter mood, evoke memories and even determine our choice of partner — without us realizing it.

When we first come into the world, vision is not our predominant sense.

Newborns have a fixed focus of about 25 centimetres, the distance between a baby’s face and that of its mother when baby is being fed, so on those occasions a baby sees its mother clearly. Most of the time, newborns recognize their mother either by the sound of her voice or by her scent.

As we grow older, scent influences mood and helps determine thought content.

For example, studies show our mood improves when we smell lavender.

When lavender is combined with eucalyptus, we become more alert.

The scent of lemons makes us think about our current state of health and rose oil can lower blood pressure.

Scent can also trigger very early memories. A particular scent can bring to mind a childhood experience, even something you were too young to remember. My own belief is that early experiences — at 30 months and earlier — aren’t lost. However, our language is so underdeveloped at that age, we can’t use words to encode what’s happening.

Perhaps most intriguing is the role scent plays in sexual attraction. When men become nervous or excited, they give off a scent that’s particular to the individual.

This scent is based in part on which disease detecting cells, known as MHC, he possesses. If a woman chooses a mate whose MHC is unlike her own, then any resulting offspring will be protected from the greatest number of diseases.

It would, therefore, be in a woman’s best interest to be attracted to men whose MHC is as dissimilar as possible from her own. And a University of Bern study found this is exactly what happens.

Scent guides more than we realize. Our nose deserves greater respect.