The Mind’s Nose and Autobiographical Odor Memory

Abstract

This study investigated the potential impact of odor imagery on the retrieval of autobiographical events. Specifically, the main aims were to examine the influence of imagined odor cues on (a) the age distribution of autobiographical memories and (b) the experiential qualities of the retrieved events. Sixty-four older adults were randomized into one of two cue conditions (word or odor imagery) and were asked to relate any autobiographical event for the given cue. The results indicated that events evoked by odor imagery were older than memories associated with words. Specifically, most memories evoked by olfactory imagery originated from the first decade of life (<10 years), whereas word-evoked memories peaked in young adulthood (11-20 years). Also, memories evoked by odor imagery entailed higher proportions of sensory experiences as compared to the word-cue condition. However, other phenomenological qualities of the retrieved events did not differ between the two conditions. Overall, this pattern of findings suggests that olfactory imagery influences temporal but not experiential qualities of retrieved autobiographical memory information.

A “Misfit” Theory of Spontaneous Conscious Odor Perception (MITSCOP): reflections on the role and function of odor memory in everyday life

“…Complete loss of hearing or blindness would seldom go unremarked, but complete anosmia is often unnoticed. Along similar lines it can be explained why the bump in the autobiographical memory curve (i.e., the period of one’s lifetime to which most memories go back) evoked by odors lies much earlier (before 10 years) than that for visually or verbally evoked memories [between 15 and 25 years; (Chu and Downes, 2000, 2002; Willander and Larsson, 2006, 2007, 2008)]. Once known, odors are simply not very easily remarked anymore in later phases of life.…”

Does puberty mark a transition in sensitive periods for plasticity in the associative neocortex?

“…A series of investigations of autobiographical memories have found that people tend to generate more lasting autobiographical memories from late childhood and teenage period of life than later in life (Janssen et al, 2011; Koppel and Berntsen, 2015)—a phenomenon called the “reminiscence bump.” The reminiscence bump was found to peak between ages 6–10 in a recent study that used neutral word cues to elicit memories and had large enough samples to use small age bins (Janssen et al, 2011). Studies that used olfactory cues also place this reminiscence bump at age 6–10 (Chu and Downes, 2000; Willander and Larsson, 2008). Interestingly, studies that use important life events to cue memories find a bump that occurs in later teenage years and into the third decade of life (age 15–28; Koppel and Berntsen, 2015).…”

“…These data suggest that across development, memories are differentially encoded or encoded in a way that they can be differentially later retrieved (Rubin, 2015). Olfactory-related autobiographical memories are more readily retrieved from the time prior to puberty (Chu and Downes, 2000; Rubin, 2015; Willander and Larsson, 2008), and more general autobiographical memories are retrieved from around the peripubertal period than at later times in life (Janssen et al, 2011). We can speculate that these forms of autobiographical memory may rely more on biological processes related to greater juvenile plasticity (Fig.…”

An in-depth review of the methods, findings, and theories associated with odor-evoked autobiographical memory

“…Although the data from this experiment support our conclusions, given the small and selective sample, this data should be cautiously viewed as interesting, but not providing critical evidence in any direction. Finally, one last study we feel is worth mentioning here is an investigation by Willander and Larsson (2008). In this study, the authors compared AMs evoked by labels and imagined odors.…”