Childhood Memories Triggered By Odor Analysis

Childhood Memories Triggered by Odor
Many people have unexplained memories from their early childhood, and those memories come rushing back when they smell a certain aroma in the air. I am one of those people. When I was in preschool, my uncle was in charge of taking me to school. However, I didn’t have to be there until later in the morning, so we would always stop for breakfast on the way over. I remember riding in his truck with the windows rolled down and my hand out the window. I even remember where we parked in the parking lot and what table we sat at every day for breakfast. I remember all this because of his cologne. I loved the way he smelled and every morning he would put it in. So, when he picked me up in the morning, the smell would be strong enough to where I could smell it in the truck even with the windows down and at breakfast. My uncle understood me and paid attention to me; he became my best friend. After he passed away, I was depressed for a while, but every time I smell the old cologne bottle of his or a scent similar to the one he wore, it brings back all the happy memories I shared with him. Through a …show more content…
As discussed earlier, the prefrontal cortex decides whether or not the smell is pleasant (Gazzinga, Heatherton & Halpern, 2016). This information travels along the olfactory nerve to areas of the cortex and amygdala (Gazzinga, Heatherton & Halpern, 2016). The amygdala is right in front of the hippocampus and is mainly focuses on emotion (Gazzinga, Heatherton & Halpern, 2016). It plays a role in the emotional reaction to a stimulus (Gazzinga, Heatherton & Halpern, 2016). In my case, I would have a happy reaction to the stimuli of the smell of my uncle's cologne. The amygdala took the information from the receptor after I smelled his cologne and used that to develop the happy