How Stress Makes Things Smell Bad

Good smells should make you happy, but that connection between certain smells and your state of mind is a tricky one. As Trace tells us, scientists are realizing they can use this connection to their advantage.

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How does the sense of smell work?
"Smell is a very direct sense. In order for you to smell something, molecules from that thing have to make it to your nose."

A Shot of Anxiety and the World Stinks: How Stress Can Rewire Brain, Making Benign Smells Malodorous
"In evolutionary terms, smell is among the oldest of the senses. In animals ranging from invertebrates to humans, olfaction exerts a primal influence as the brain continuously and subconsciously processes the steady stream of scent molecules that waft under our noses."

A shot of anxiety and the world stinks
"In evolutionary terms, smell is among the oldest of the senses. In animals ranging from invertebrates to humans, olfaction exerts a primal influence as the brain continuously and subconsciously processes the steady stream of scent molecules that waft under our noses."

Smells Change Depending on Stress Levels: How Anxiety Influences Our Senses
"Smell is one of the oldest of the senses in evolutionary terms. Animals that range from invertebrates to humans use this sense in order to navigate the world. Now, scientists have discovered that smells may change depending on our stress levels; it turns out that when we're anxious, neutral orders can turn distasteful."

Slow and Fast Axonal Transport Are Linked
"Many presynaptic proteins are synthesized in the cell body and transported to axon terminals. Membrane proteins are transported in vesicles that bind motor proteins and are carried along microtubules by fast axonal transport."

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[Epicmealtime]

I hope so good luck in your life and may god be with you.

[KirschSalvator]

Apple Cinnamon candles make me think of Christmas, and give me a warm and loved feeling inside. <3

[MoggyTheWolf]

My fave smells have to be that of my friends and family. I can differentiate their "natural odour" from other people. My husbands smell is one that often makes me feel happy. His scent makes me feel at home and safe. Go ahead, call me weird, but it's all true.

The smell of autumn is also a favourite of mine. This time of year everything just smells lovely and although this is when my allergies are at their worst, oddly it is my fave season. Falling leafs, pumpkin spice and apple cider, yum!

[seatbelttruck]

This doesn't surprise me. Getting stressed out before a biology lab made the dissection smell much worse. It also made my sense of touch more acute, which is loads of fun when you're digging through the slimy insides of a clam. Can't eat clam chowder any more. 

[joeygrl]

I love the smell of the very first cold day after a long hot summer. When you open your windows and you can smell the air so crisp and fresh and cool.

[martinakirke]

the smell is very powerful and it can bring back (or create) memories, it is very much connected to feelings (in czech language, "smell" and "feel" even translate into the same word)... i used to smell my partner anytime he was clean and without any deodorant, his smell was very intoxicating

[Amy_Dunn]

The smell of Coffee brewing always makes me feel calm and warm inside. reminds me of happy mornings when I was a kid. Also the smell of horses and cows, that may just be because I spent some time in the country as a kid, but most people think it's super stinky, it just reminds me of fun times. for some reason the smell of yeast or baking bread makes me anxious, and I have no idea why because I kind of like the smell.

[elenna_alexia]

That's one of the most basic and most important forms of learning. As two stimuli often occur together, the brain makes a connection between them. The more stimuli are presented together and not without them, the more they get associated. If they aren't presented together anymore and especially if they are presented without the other stimulus present, the association gets weaker. Now the only question is: Why would you want to eat something that smells of artificial strawberry flavor?

[connerfields]

For the sake of argument, if I were to sniff sharpie one time, what would that do to my olfactory bulb? Say I unhooked myself...what can I expect moving forward.

[DG-EditsYT]

I am a perfume collector, i have a very sensitive nose to everywhere i go, all the time, even my own home can be overwhelming, also my scent recall is extraordinary, I have to ignore many things

[Orsbore]

I couldn't have imagined it either, but now that it's happened, it's no big deal. I don't even notice it. Frankly, I miss out on a lot of bad smells.

[darkpowerxo]

how to fix depression, a good subject for a video

[rowdy]

When I was in AIT I heard that citrus scented stuff tends to make people think a room is cleaner than people who smelled other stuff. So my room always smelled like citrus - and I never failed a room inspection.

[BiggySeth]

We have know this for years.
Some meditators like to light a specific inscent each time they meditate so when they smell that sent later, they go back into that peaceful state faster

[dollarsignfrodofan]

fresh asphault gives me a headache and makes me angry

[IanHasLargeLobes]

The smell of cooking onions gives me severe anxiety, must be from when I was a little kid.

[Scarlett]

Can you please talk about image recognition is humans? Our memory and ability to remember what and when we saw certain things.

[Turtletoots]

I can't imagine how that would be like.

[minioli]

Thank you neuroscientist. You finaly proven the same principle Ivan Pavlov had in 1905. Its calle classical conditionning...

[Orsbore]

I had a stroke three years ago, and my balance became bad. It does suck, but at least it's not gone.