Participants with depression were exposed to various scents, including ground coffee and coconut oil.
Have you ever been reminded of important moments in your life after smelling a particular scent? Scents can be more effective than words in evoking positive memories and can help people with depression break out of negative thought patterns. It is known that there is a sex.
In a University of Pittsburgh study, 32 people between the ages of 18 and 55 with major depressive disorder were treated with Vicks VapoRub, ground coffee, coconut oil, cumin powder, red wine, vanilla extract, clove bulbs, and shoes. They put 12 different scents in bottles and exposed them to them. Polish, orange essential oil, ketchup.
After smelling the vial, neuroscientists asked participants to recall a specific memory and whether it was good or bad. new york post report.
Lead author of the study published in Jama network openKimberly Young says that people with depression who smell a familiar scent are more likely to recall specific memories or events, such as being at a coffee shop a week ago, than general memories. I did.
She said smells evoke memories that feel more “vivid, immersive, and real” than verbal cues.
“I was surprised that no one had thought of using scent cues to investigate memory recall in patients with depression until now,” Young, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said in a press release. Stated.
Young discovered that the amygdala, a part of the brain that controls the fight-or-flight response, helps recall memories by focusing attention on specific events.
Scents stimulate the amygdala through neural connections in the olfactory bulb, a mass of neural tissue connected to the sense of smell.
The fact that scents can trigger happy memories in people without depression prompted Young to study scents and memory recall in depressed people.
Young said improving memory in people with depression could help them heal faster.
