Introducing smell
Smell is the mental capacity of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc. In this article, I will talk about how smell is connected to memory and if smell is a good or bad thing for us.
How do they work?
According to Gloria Rodrigez-Gil, M.Ed., a California Deaf-Blind Services Educational Specialist, “the sense of smell, just like the sense of taste, is a chemical sense. They are called chemical senses because they detect chemicals in the environment, with the difference being that smell works at dramatically larger distances than that of taste.”
We often take the sense of smell in our day-to-day lives for granted, and think we really rely on our eyes and ears. Smell has been an integral part of evolution and survival of the fittest for our species in the past. Although humans rely less now on smell for survival, a huge importance is still placed on smell today for taste enjoyment and to attract a partner through the use of perfumes.
Smell and memory
As reported by How Stuff Works online, “A smell can bring on a flood of memories, influence people’s moods and even affect their work performance. Because the olfactory bulb is part of the brain’s limbic system, an area so closely associated with memory and feeling it’s sometimes called the ‘emotional brain’, smell can call up memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously.”
The definition of smell
As most of you all know, the basic definition of smell, by Dictionary Reference online, is that it is the ability to perceive and distinguish odors. The definition of smelling, also by Dictionary Reference online, is “the act of perceiving and distinguishing odors, the act of smelling”.
Examples
Now, you will see three examples of how the sense of smell can help you (one of them is a personal example):
- Your house is on fire and you don’t know about it, then you suddenly smell the fire and run out of your house. You survive because of the sense of smell.
- You like someone’s fragrance scent, and you buy the same fragrance as the person. You’re walking at the street and smell the same fragrance that you have bought, and you remember that you forgot the fragrance at the store.
(Personal Example) I was in the middle of a class, I detected the smell of pastel, a traditional Brazilian food, and I remembered its taste, realizing that we were going to have pastel at lunch time.
Conclusion
Finally, after all of my research, I can conclude that the sense of smell is really important for our daily lives because it can save our lives and make us remember of happy and sad moments. The sense of smell can also transform our lives, sometimes in negative aspects and sometimes in positive aspects.
Source:
http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/perception/smell3.htm
