Your nose will lead you in the right direction

WE are often told to follow our nose when looking for something – and now research has found those with a good sense of smell are better at navigating.

Scientists said that our ability to find our way relies on the same parts of the brain that we use to process odours.

The findings suggest our ability to navigate evolved from being able to sniff out a trail.

Over time more complex mental maps of our surroundings developed from this ability using similar brain areas.

Writing in Nature Communications, the researchers state: “In the current set of studies, we report for the first time that olfactory (smell) identification and spatial memory are related in humans.”

The team at McGill University in Canada found that in a group of 57 volunteers, those who were good at identifying different smells performed better at a task which involved navigating between landmarks in a computer simulation.

To test the hypothesis that similar brain areas are involved in both activities, the scientists used MRI scans to measure two areas in the brain, the left medial orbito-frontal cortex and the right hippo-campus.

When these areas were thicker, participants had better performance at smelling as well as navigating. – Daily Mail