Odours may trigger long-term memories: Study

Ever wondered as to why some smells make you nostalgic about the old days?

A team of researchers has recently revealed that the brain plays a major role between odours and nostalgia by logging scents in the part of brain, which is responsible for retaining long-term memories.

The current study shows that the piriform cortex, a part of the olfactory brain, is involved in the process of saving those memories; the mechanism, however, only works in interaction with other brain areas. Artificial sensation through stimulation - synaptic plasticity - is responsible for retaining memories in the brain.

They explained that a memory is created, when communication between neurons is altered by means of a process called synaptic plasticity. Ruhr-University Bochum neuroscientists Dr Christina Strauch and Prof Dr Denise Manahan-Vaughan conducted the research on the brain area responsible for storing odours as long-term memories.

“It is known that the piriform cortex is able to temporarily store olfactory memories. We wanted to know, if that applies to long-term memories as well,” said Christina Strauch.

The team conducted a study on rats to examine whether the piriform cortex is capable of expressing synaptic plasticity and if the change lasts for more than four hours then it indicates that its a long-term memory.