Of all the senses we like to enjoy, scent is often neglected, but the right scent could be exactly what you need to keep your brain functioning well into old age.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, recently found strong evidence that enriching the air with scents strengthens key connections between neural areas involved in memory and decision-making, improving cognitive performance. .
Their study of 43 men and women between the ages of 60 and 85 found that simply diffusing a different kind of perfume into the bedroom before going to bed each night could slow down symptoms such as cognitive decline and dementia. It has been suggested that there is
Keeping old gray matter stimulated as we age is essential for maintaining cognitive health. It doesn’t mean just keeping up with your daily crossword, it means sprinkling your environment with all sorts of sights and sounds for your brain to chew on.
In other animals, enriching the environment with odors has been shown to stimulate neuroplasticity. especially in testing Causes neuropathy in animals with symptoms similar to those in humans.
It’s not entirely unreasonable to think that humans, too, could benefit from experiencing complex ‘olfactory landscapes’.Physiologically speaking, our ability to perceive smell is deteriorates faster than our cognitive abilities begin to decline.
this feeling is lost correlated with loss This suggests that there is a strong link between the sense of smell and neuronal function.
“The sense of smell has the special privilege of being directly connected to the brain’s memory circuits.” To tell Neurobiologist Michael Yassa.
“All other senses first go through the thalamus. Since time immemorial, we’ve all experienced how powerful scents can be to evoke memories. There is no intervention for loss of sense of smell, unlike changes in visual acuity.”
To determine whether this type of sensory stimulation could rescue cognitive decline, Yassa and his colleagues gave 20 study recruits rose, orange, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, and lavender. Offered an assortment of natural oils, including scents.
The remaining group was given a ‘sham’ containing traces of odorants. All participants were required to infuse their home with one of his oils in a diffuser for two hours each night for six months, rotating a menu of fragrances.
We then used a battery of neuropsychological tests to compare the volunteers’ memory, verbal learning, planning and attention-switching skills before and after the 6-month trial.
Surprisingly, there was a clear 226% difference between the responses of people exposed to different scents and those in the control group. Scanning their brains Anatomical link area Important brain effects on memory and thinking within the test group.
All of the volunteers were similarly in good mental health, so the researchers now aim to see if the results continue to hold for people already diagnosed with some degree of cognitive decline. ing.
Regardless of your age or mental state, getting your nose to do something when the lights go out and silence sets in isn’t a nasty way to train your mind for the night.
This research Frontiers of Neuroscience.
