How Smells Trigger Memories

SciShow explains how smells can bring back early memories -- even memories that your brain didn’t know you had.

Hosted by: Hank Green
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[Wynner]

A few years ago I smelled something that triggered a memory so strong that it felt like I was transported back to when I first smelled it. The sights and sounds of the memory stopped me in my tracks. It was of the first time in Las Vegas. It was so vivid.

[nolanthiessen]

2:04 Whiskey reminds me of my childhood too.

[SawtoothWaves]

Sometimes a certain smell can take me back to when I was young. How come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from? I'd make a candle out of it if I ever found it try to sell it never sell out of it I'd probably only sell one.

[mscraftyperson]

Omg this happens all the time like i smell my grandmas perfume or homemade mac and cheese and i remember so many things and same thing with songs.

[danxepha]

This sort of stuff is always interesting to me as I became anosmic (no sense of smell) after having a brain haemorrhage about 8 years ago.
I think for me it is more like "how memories trigger smells". Like when I cook bacon sometimes I swear I can smell it, but then I think its just my brain remembering what bacon smells like and attempts to fill in the gaps.
I'm not sure if that's how it actually works but it sure seems that way.
I get a lot of people saying to me "you're lucky you can't smell that" when they smell something disgusting, to which I reply "would you tell a blind person they were lucky because they could not see something ugly?". That usually shuts them up and makes them think.

I miss the smell of cut grass, bacon and pretty much any food that is baked :-(

[encanta]

This happens to me so often! Whenever I smell smoke (like from a fireplace or when someone is having a bbq) it takes me back to my childhood and to my favorite camping place, which I have been going to every year for 24 years!

[Bigglesman]

This happens to me so hardcore when I listen to songs I haven't heard in forever, so it's not not just smells

[Blackstaff]

It reminds me when the seasons change it always makes me think of things that happened during that time in the past.

[RuleofThreeTAG]

I'm happy to finally figure out why I have such vivid memories of my child hood when I smell the hot air around summer time. I used to go on vacations all the time when I was a kid. Since I got older all I do it work, kind of depressing actually.

[spidervenomkilljoy]

this happens to me with a lot of smells that evoke some of the memories from my childhood, like the moment when i notice the smell of an eraser and i remember when i was erasing something on a paper in kindergarten or certain smells that I notice when i'm outside. It doesn't happen very often but when it does it takes you back to those years when everything seemed new to you.

[dm_nimbus]

How about when smells seem familiar but you can't figure out what they are?

[carterferguson]

Sometimes a certain smell can take me back to when I was young how come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from

[RCOATES]

this happened to me last week, thank you for making this video it made so much sense. Definitely agree that it brings back feelings of how you felt when you first smelt it rather than what you were doing at the time

[SamRoq]

I came here because i literally remember hugging him and i can smell his perfume...

[psycobasschick]

This is one of my favorite phenomena. It's why when I smell English tea rose I think of my great great aunt who was a nun. She always gave me soap that was that scent. It makes me think of writing her letters when I was 6 and how she told me that things only truly are valuable if you use them, like the soap she always gave me. I still buy tea rose perfume oil because of how I feel when I wear it.

[Belboz]

One of the oldest memories I recalled by smell happened when I was working at a Radioshack, stocking shelves, and suddenly smelled something I hadn't smelled in nearly 20 years.

I immediately recalled "Shrinkidinks", a kids art / craft where you paint onto the plastic, put it in the oven, and it shrinks, causing more vibrant / denser colors.

Near as I could tell, I was around 3 when this memory occurred.  I could even see the oven from a height of around 2' off the floor, the viewpoint of a toddler, I could barely see over the kitchen table.

Turns out I was stocking wiring insulators, which were made of shrinkable plastic tubing, made to be heated and shrink around the wires.  Go figure!

[braziliantvhd]

Taste too, every time eat a Hot Tamale candy it takes me back to when I watched Star Wars as a kid in 77 when I always bought them when watching movies

[dirtracer]

thats soo Fn bizarre...iv been having not just memories but almost what id call a flashback triggered by smells, n every single one of them is from when i was younger, around 10 or younger is exactly the age range id give it to like u mentioned iv been working on getting off suboxone for the past 2 years but iv just hit this weird plateau, suddenly my sense of smell came back n its been OVERwhelming to say the least its almost more than i can deal with it triggers memories SO hardcore i almost feel like im living them again n theyre all good memories but a lot r of ppl ill never b able to see again : / so its depressing as F

[BlueThunderboltsiren]

Sometimes even the smell of rain and spring weather triggers my memories.

[thevirtualjim]

I have conceptual memories back to when I was 2 years old.  My first was sitting in a highchair and my dad called my mom on the phone from work and i wanted to tell him how my white rice i was eating was all sticking together.

My first feeling of nostalgia was when i was 6 yrs old hanging out with family friends and remembering stuff we did when I was 4 and missing those 'old' times.  :)