Nostalgic foods and scents like fresh-cut grass and hamburgers grilling bring comfort, connection and well-being
Walking around my neighborhood in the evening, I am hit by the smells of summer: fresh-cut grass, hamburgers grilling and a hint of swimming pool chlorine. These are also the smells of summers from my adolescence, and they remind me of Friday evenings at the community pool with my friends and our families gathered around picnic tables between swims. The memories always brings a smile to my face.
As a social psychologist, I shouldn't feel surprised to experience this warm glow. My research focuses on nostalgia – a sentimental longing for treasured moments in our personal pasts – and how nostalgia is linked to our well-being and feelings of connection with others.
Triggered by sensory stimuli such as music, scents and foods, nostalgia has the power to mentally transport us back in time. This might be to important occasions, to moments of triumph and – importantly – moments revolving around close family and friends and other important people in our lives.
As it turns out, this experience is good for us.
For centuries, nostalgia was considered unhealthy.
In the 1600s, a Swiss medical student named Johannes Hofer studied mercenaries in the Italian and French lowlands who longed desperately for their mountain homelands. Witnessing their weeping and despondency, he coined the term nostalgia and attributed it to a brain disease. Other thinkers of the time echoed this view, which persisted through the 18th and 19th centuries.
However, early thinkers made an error: They assumed that nostalgia was causing unpleasant symptoms. It may have been the reverse. Unpleasant experiences, such as loneliness and grief, can arouse nostalgia, which can then help people cope more effectively with these hardships.
Today, researchers view nostalgia as a predominantly positive, albeit bittersweet, emotional experience that serves as a source of psychological well-being. Importantly, this view has been supported by scientific research.
Nostalgia provides many benefits. It enhances feelings of optimism and inspiration and makes people view themselves more positively. When people feel nostalgic, they feel a greater sense that their lives are meaningful.
The social benefits of nostalgia are particularly well supported. Nostalgia increases empathy and the willingness of people to give to those around them, such as volunteering for community events and donating to charities.
Nostalgia also makes people feel more socially connected to their loved ones by enhancing feelings that they are loved by, connected to, protected by and trusting of others. Nostalgia helps people feel more secure in their close relationships and enhances relationship satisfaction.
While nostalgia is a universal experience, it is also deeply personal. The moments for which we are each nostalgic and the stimuli that might trigger our nostalgic memories can vary from one person to the next depending on the experiences that each of us have. But people within the same culture may find similar stimuli to be nostalgic for them. In a 2013 study, for instance, my team found that American participants rated pumpkin pie spice as the most nostalgia-evoking scent out of a variety of options.
In 1922, the French novelist Marcel Proust wrote about the strength of scents and foods to elicit nostalgia. He vividly described how the experience of smelling and eating a tea-soaked cake mentally transported him back to childhood experiences with his aunt in her home and village. This sort of experience is now often referred to as the Proust effect.
Science has confirmed what Proust described. Our olfactory system, the sensory system responsible for our sense of smell, is closely linked to brain structures associated with emotions and autobiographical memory. Smells combine with tastes to create our perception of flavor.
Foods also tend to be central to social gatherings, making them easily associated with these memories. For instance, a summer barbecue might feel incomplete to some without slices of juicy watermelon. And homemade pumpkin pie may be an essential dessert at many Thanksgiving tables. The watermelon or pie may then serve as what are known in social psychology as social surrogates, foods that serve as stand-ins for valued relationships due to their inclusion at past occasions with loved ones.
My research team and I wanted to know how people benefited from feeling nostalgic when they encountered the scents and foods of their pasts. We began in 2011 by exposing study participants to 33 scents and chose 12 of them for our study. Participants rated some scents, such as pumpkin pie spice and baby powder, as highly evocative of nostalgia, while rating others – such as money and cappuccino –as less evocative.
Those who experienced more nostalgia when smelling the scents experienced greater positive emotions, greater self-esteem, greater feelings of connection to their past selves, greater optimism, greater feelings of social connectedness and a greater sense that life is meaningful.
We came to similar conclusions when we studied nostalgia for foods. Foods seemed to be more strongly linked to nostalgia than either scents or music when comparing the amount of nostalgia our participants experienced for foods to what previous research participants experienced for scents and songs. More recently, we found that nostalgic foods are comforting and that people find nostalgic foods comforting because those nostalgic foods remind them of important or meaningful moments with their loved ones.
Although nostalgia can be associated with foods that should be eaten only in moderation – such as burgers and cookies – there are other ways to channel our nostalgia through foods.
We can have nostalgia with healthy foods. For instance, orange slices remind me of halftime at childhood soccer matches. And many people, including our research participants, feel intense nostalgia around watermelon. Other researchers have found that tofu is a nostalgic food for Chinese participants.
But when nostalgia does involve consumption of unhealthy foods, there are still other ways to experience it without the health trade-offs. We found that participants experienced the benefits of food-evoked nostalgia just from imagining and writing about the foods – no consumption necessary. Other researchers have found that drawing comforting foods can enhance well-being. Even consuming less healthy foods more mindfully helps people enjoy their food while reducing their caloric consumption.
Once seen as detrimental to our health, nostalgia provides us with an opportunity to reap numerous rewards. With nostalgic foods, we might be able to nourish both our bodies and our psychological health.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Chelsea Reid, College of Charleston
Read more:
A Persian festival, Yalda, celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, with pomegranates, poetry and sacred rituals
Winter brings more than just ugly sweaters – here's how the season can affect your mind and behavior
What makes smoky, charred barbecue taste so good? The chemistry of cooking over an open flame
Chelsea Reid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Nostalgic foods and scents like fresh-cut grass and hamburgers grilling bring comfort, connection and well-being
Walking around my neighborhood in the evening, I am hit by the smells of summer: fresh-cut grass, hamburgers grilling and a hint of swimming pool chlorine. These are also the smells of summers from my adolescence, and they remind me of Friday evenings at the community pool with my friends and our families gathered around picnic tables between swims. The memories always brings a smile to my face. As a social psychologist, I shouldn't feel surprised to experience this warm glow. My research focuses on nostalgia – a sentimental longing for treasured moments in our personal pasts – and how nostalgia is linked to our well-being and feelings of connection with others. Triggered by sensory stimuli such as music, scents and foods, nostalgia has the power to mentally transport us back in time. This might be to important occasions, to moments of triumph and – importantly – moments revolving around close family and friends and other important people in our lives. As it turns out, this experience is good for us. For centuries, nostalgia was considered unhealthy. In the 1600s, a Swiss medical student named Johannes Hofer studied mercenaries in the Italian and French lowlands who longed desperately for their mountain homelands. Witnessing their weeping and despondency, he coined the term nostalgia and attributed it to a brain disease. Other thinkers of the time echoed this view, which persisted through the 18th and 19th centuries. However, early thinkers made an error: They assumed that nostalgia was causing unpleasant symptoms. It may have been the reverse. Unpleasant experiences, such as loneliness and grief, can arouse nostalgia, which can then help people cope more effectively with these hardships. Today, researchers view nostalgia as a predominantly positive, albeit bittersweet, emotional experience that serves as a source of psychological well-being. Importantly, this view has been supported by scientific research. Nostalgia provides many benefits. It enhances feelings of optimism and inspiration and makes people view themselves more positively. When people feel nostalgic, they feel a greater sense that their lives are meaningful. The social benefits of nostalgia are particularly well supported. Nostalgia increases empathy and the willingness of people to give to those around them, such as volunteering for community events and donating to charities. Nostalgia also makes people feel more socially connected to their loved ones by enhancing feelings that they are loved by, connected to, protected by and trusting of others. Nostalgia helps people feel more secure in their close relationships and enhances relationship satisfaction. While nostalgia is a universal experience, it is also deeply personal. The moments for which we are each nostalgic and the stimuli that might trigger our nostalgic memories can vary from one person to the next depending on the experiences that each of us have. But people within the same culture may find similar stimuli to be nostalgic for them. In a 2013 study, for instance, my team found that American participants rated pumpkin pie spice as the most nostalgia-evoking scent out of a variety of options. In 1922, the French novelist Marcel Proust wrote about the strength of scents and foods to elicit nostalgia. He vividly described how the experience of smelling and eating a tea-soaked cake mentally transported him back to childhood experiences with his aunt in her home and village. This sort of experience is now often referred to as the Proust effect. Science has confirmed what Proust described. Our olfactory system, the sensory system responsible for our sense of smell, is closely linked to brain structures associated with emotions and autobiographical memory. Smells combine with tastes to create our perception of flavor. Foods also tend to be central to social gatherings, making them easily associated with these memories. For instance, a summer barbecue might feel incomplete to some without slices of juicy watermelon. And homemade pumpkin pie may be an essential dessert at many Thanksgiving tables. The watermelon or pie may then serve as what are known in social psychology as social surrogates, foods that serve as stand-ins for valued relationships due to their inclusion at past occasions with loved ones. My research team and I wanted to know how people benefited from feeling nostalgic when they encountered the scents and foods of their pasts. We began in 2011 by exposing study participants to 33 scents and chose 12 of them for our study. Participants rated some scents, such as pumpkin pie spice and baby powder, as highly evocative of nostalgia, while rating others – such as money and cappuccino –as less evocative. Those who experienced more nostalgia when smelling the scents experienced greater positive emotions, greater self-esteem, greater feelings of connection to their past selves, greater optimism, greater feelings of social connectedness and a greater sense that life is meaningful. We came to similar conclusions when we studied nostalgia for foods. Foods seemed to be more strongly linked to nostalgia than either scents or music when comparing the amount of nostalgia our participants experienced for foods to what previous research participants experienced for scents and songs. More recently, we found that nostalgic foods are comforting and that people find nostalgic foods comforting because those nostalgic foods remind them of important or meaningful moments with their loved ones. Although nostalgia can be associated with foods that should be eaten only in moderation – such as burgers and cookies – there are other ways to channel our nostalgia through foods. We can have nostalgia with healthy foods. For instance, orange slices remind me of halftime at childhood soccer matches. And many people, including our research participants, feel intense nostalgia around watermelon. Other researchers have found that tofu is a nostalgic food for Chinese participants. But when nostalgia does involve consumption of unhealthy foods, there are still other ways to experience it without the health trade-offs. We found that participants experienced the benefits of food-evoked nostalgia just from imagining and writing about the foods – no consumption necessary. Other researchers have found that drawing comforting foods can enhance well-being. Even consuming less healthy foods more mindfully helps people enjoy their food while reducing their caloric consumption. Once seen as detrimental to our health, nostalgia provides us with an opportunity to reap numerous rewards. With nostalgic foods, we might be able to nourish both our bodies and our psychological health. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Chelsea Reid, College of Charleston Read more: A Persian festival, Yalda, celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, with pomegranates, poetry and sacred rituals Winter brings more than just ugly sweaters – here's how the season can affect your mind and behavior What makes smoky, charred barbecue taste so good? The chemistry of cooking over an open flame Chelsea Reid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Thiogenesis Announces Second Site Begins Enrolling in Phase 2 MELAS Clinical Trial and Provides Update
San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2025) - Thiogenesis Therapeutics, Corp. (TSXV: TTI) (OTCQX: TTIPF) ("Thiogenesis" or the "Company") a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing sulfur-based therapeutics for serious pediatric and inherited mitochondrial diseases, today announced the recent activation of its French clinical site for Thiogenesis' ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating TTI-0102 in patients with Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy with Lactic Acidosis and Stroke-like Episodes ("MELAS"). The first patient at Angers University Hospital Center ("CHU Angers") was dosed last week, marking a key expansion milestone in the Company's multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled MELAS Phase 2 clinical trial. This trial is designed to assess the safety, tolerability, PK/PD, and efficacy of oral TTI-0102 over a six-month treatment period. The clinical trial is enrolling 12 MELAS patients across leading institutions in the Netherlands and France, with 8 patients receiving TTI-0102 and 4 receiving placebo. Driven by robust enrollment at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, Netherlands, the Company has already surpassed the threshold of patients required for a three-month interim analysis - now planned for September 2025. "We are excited to activate our second clinical site and to accelerate our Phase 2 MELAS program with strong momentum," said Dr. Patrice Rioux, MD, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Thiogenesis. "We are especially encouraged by the pace of enrollment and are looking forward to our interim analysis, which we anticipate will evaluate both safety and early signals of efficacy. This is a significant step toward our mission to deliver novel thiol-based drugs as therapies for patients with unmet medical needs in inherited mitochondrial disease." Key clinical endpoints in the Phase 2 clinical trial includes the 12-Minute Walk Test ("12-MWT"), Fatigue Severity Scale ("FSS"), and the WHOQOL-BREF Quality of Life assessment - important indicators of functional and symptomatic improvement in this patient population. About MELASMitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes ("MELAS") is an inherited mitochondrial disorder, most often caused by a mutation of m.3243A>G in the MT-TL1 gene in mitochondrial DNA. Initial symptoms usually include seizures, vomiting, headaches, muscle weakness, loss of appetite and fatigue. Longer term the disease may cause a loss of motor skills and intellectual disability. MELAS usually presents itself before the age of 20. Oxidative stress, including deficiencies in glutathione and taurine, play an important role in mitochondria dysfunction and are potential pathological mechanisms of mitochondrial disorders, making for viable targets for the treatment of MELAS and other mitochondrial diseases. Although it is one of the most prevalent inherited mitochondrial diseases, MELAS is still considered an orphan disease. There are estimated to be approximately 4.1/100,000 of the population (Ryytty et al. 2023) with MELAS worldwide. About TTI-0102Thiogenesis' lead product candidate, TTI-0102, is an asymmetric disulfide and a prodrug that acts as a precursor to the thiol compound cysteamine. Thiols, which have a functional SH group (containing sulfur and hydrogen), are versatile bio-active molecules that are known to be involved in key biochemical reactions and metabolic processes, making them promising candidates to treat several diseases. Thiols are known to be precursors to important antioxidants such as glutathione and amino acids like taurine, providing the potential to restore mitochondrial function. The prodrug TTI-0102 was developed to address the challenges of first-generation thiol-based drugs, including their short half live, adverse side effects and dosing limitations. About ProdrugsProdrugs are drugs that contain previously approved active ingredients and are modified so that they only become active when metabolized. For regulatory purposes prodrugs can use existing third-party safety data in regulatory submissions in the streamlined 505 (b)(2) regulatory pathway in the U.S., and its equivalent hybrid system in the EU, to proceed into human efficacy trials with regulatory clearance. Prodrugs may enhance the profile of the active ingredient to increase its bioavailability and reduce side effects. About ThiogenesisThiogenesis Therapeutics, Corp. (TSXV: TTI) (OTCQX: TTIPF) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with operations based in San Diego, CA. The Company is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange and in the U.S. on the OTCQX. Thiogenesis is developing sulfur-containing prodrugs that act as precursors to previously approved thiol-active compounds, with the potential to treat serious pediatric diseases with unmet medical needs. Thiogenesis' lead product candidate, TTI-0102 has an active Phase 2 clinical trial in Mitochondrial Encephalopathy Lactic Acidosis and Stroke ("MELAS") and is planning clinical trials in Leigh syndrome, Rett syndrome and pediatric MASH. For further information, please contact:Brook Riggins, Director, and CFOEmail: info@ (888) 223-9165 Forward-Looking StatementsThis news release contains certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of Canadian securities laws including, without limitation, statements with respect to the future investments by the Company. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements, which are inherently uncertain, are based on estimates and assumptions, and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties (both general and specific) that contribute to the possibility that the future events or circumstances contemplated by the forward-looking statements will not occur. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, and the assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are made, are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements included in this document, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions, or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause the Company's actual performance and results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor the OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit
National Geographic
9 hours ago
- National Geographic
How smelling roses could help you make stronger memories
If hearing an old song or getting a whiff of freshly sharpened pencils instantly carries you back to high school, you're familiar with the link between your senses and memory. When a sensory experience spontaneously evokes an autobiographical memory, it's often called the Proust Effect, named for French author Marcel Proust who described how the experience of eating a madeleine instantly transported him back to childhood in his novel In Search of Lost Time. 'The senses are critical for memory because they're at the intersection between our environment, our experiences, and our memory system,' says Susanne Jaeggi, a professor of psychology, applied psychology, and music and co-director of the Brain Game Center for Mental Fitness and Well-Being at Northeastern University in Boston. But you don't have to wait for that random waft of pencil shavings to conjure your school days. By actively focusing on your senses during important moments, you may actually be able to improve your long-term memory. And even if you're not trying to remember a specific moment or experience, strengthening your senses will boost your memory overall. Here's how your primary senses influence memory—and what experts say you can do to hone them. The links between memory and the senses in your brain First, some background: On a basic physiological level, the parts of the brain that process smell, sight, sound, taste, touch, and memories are neurologically linked. When you're exposed to a particular sight, sound, or smell, your senses generate electrochemical activity—with brain cells firing, typically in the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for memory and learning, explains Andrew Budson, a professor of neurology at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and coauthor of the book Why We Forget and How to Remember Better. These signals are transmitted to the hippocampus, which then 'takes separate sights, sounds, smells, thoughts, and feelings and binds them together into something coherent,' he explains. Meanwhile, the brain's amygdala adds emotion to the experience, and another part of the hippocampus tags this information so it can be retrieved for years to come. 'One of the ways a memory can be tagged as important is if it had a strong sensation such as a strong smell or beautiful image associated with it,' says Budson. 'That tells the brain to hold onto the information for a long time.' When information is experienced across multiple senses—for example, if you see and smell an apple pie as it comes out of your grandmother's oven—it has a higher chance of being remembered, Jaeggi says, because 'you have different pathways for accessing it later.' Indeed, research has found that multisensory learning improves memory by creating what's known as a 'memory engram'—a physical trace or imprint of a memory in the brain—across different sensory areas in the brain. 'There's a myth that some people learn best with visual stimuli and others with auditory stimuli,' says Budson, who's also chief of cognitive behavioral neurology at the VA Boston Healthcare System. 'The truth is, we all learn best when we have a multisensory experience because we're literally storing that memory in multiple areas of the brain that are associated with those senses.' Different areas of the brain play a role in sensory processing and memory formation. There are two hemispheres in the brain, each of which contains four main lobes: • The frontal lobes help control thinking and short-term memory, as well as voluntary movements and emotion regulation; • the parietal lobes process and integrate sensory information, including taste, texture, and temperature; • the temporal lobes are involved in auditory processing and spatial and visual perception; • and the occipital lobes process and interpret visual information from your eyes. Sight has might As human beings, 'we are very visually oriented,' says Jonathan Schooler, a cognitive psychologist and professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara. 'You can recognize a smell but it's hard to recall a smell. It's easy to conjure an image in your mind. While people often think vision happens in the eyes, what you see is actually processed in the occipital lobes, the parietal lobes, and the temporal lobes of the brain. 'Vision is the largest sense in terms of brain real estate,' Budson explains. Not surprisingly, research has found that visual long-term memory 'has a massive storage capacity' for details. Visual memory also can help you remember people and places—and it's flexible. In a study in a 2023 issue of Current Biology, researchers demonstrated that visual memories are the result of neural codes that evolve over time so that people can use that information to guide their behavior in the future. For example, if you make a list of groceries to buy but forget to bring it to the store, the process of having written it down and reviewed it will help you remember what you need. TIP: Zoom in on the details. If you train your eyes and mind to pay better attention to visual stimuli, studies have shown it can improve accuracy and efficiency in recalling visual information. If you're gazing at a scene in nature or a painting in a gallery, home in on the colors and textures to help you remember it better. (Learn what makes a photo memorable.) Hearing provides a soundtrack Although it's unclear why, scientists have found that auditory memory—the ability to remember information that's presented orally—tends to be less robust than visual memory. But there are exceptions: A study in a 2021 issue of the journal Psychological Research found that musicians have specific advantages when it comes to remembering sequences of sound patterns. These include the variations in pitch associated with speech (based on intonations or inflections) as well as changes in frequency of other sounds. This makes sense because remembering sound variations is important to musicians. A similar principle applies to important moments in real life for non-musicians: You might remember what song was playing when you met the love of your life or the lyrics to a song you played nonstop in high school because they mattered to you. 'A lot of what we remember has to do with the [subjective] importance of the information we're processing—the fact that it is important or interesting to us,' Jaeggi says. TIP: Break down the sound into separate parts. Auditory training—training your mind to listen actively to sounds and make distinctions between them—has been shown to improve working memory, attention, and communication among adults with mild hearing loss. So if you hear a great song that you want to remember to add to Spotify later, try to pick out certain instruments or rhythms in the piece. Smell conjures emotions If the smell of fresh-cut grass or campfires reminds you of your childhood, you're in good company. In 2021, a study conducted in Japan found that exposure to particular scents—such as tatami (Japanese straw mat), osmanthus flower, baby powder, citrus, and incense—elicited vivid, autobiographical memories, causing participants to feel as though they were 'being brought back in time.' 'No other sensory system is linked to the neural hub of emotion, learning, and memory, the way smell is,' says Rachel Herz, a neuroscientist and adjunct assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at the Brown University Medical School. The primary olfactory cortex resides where the amygdala and the hippocampus meet—"that's where the conscious perception of smell occurs,' Herz says, and it's the area that modulates learning and memory. A study in the journal Memory found that olfactory cues are more effective than visual cues at helping people recall memories from childhood. 'If you smell an odor, it's a great way to unlock a memory,' says Lila Davachi, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Columbia University in New York City. TIP: Stop and smell the roses, the freesias—and the rest of your surroundings. A 2023 review of the medical literature found that olfactory training (a.k.a., smell retraining) is associated with improved cognition and memory. 'Good olfactory function is important for healthy brain aging,' says Herz, author of Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationship With Food. This is why Herz recommends engaging in smell training: Spend a few minutes every day smelling different things in your home such as spices, personal care products, perfumes, candles, or foods: 'Focus on what you're smelling and think about what it reminds you of,' she suggests. Taste the moment Believe it or not, there's something called gustatory working memory—the ability to remember a particular taste even after you're exposed to other tastes. With gustatory memory, taste information detected by your taste buds travels to the gustatory cortex, located within the cerebral cortex in the brain. There, it's processed and interpreted; then, the taste signals are transmitted to other brain regions, including the amygdala which plays a vital role in emotional responses and memory formation. Taste memory allows you to anticipate the taste of particular foods simply by looking at them, which helps you choose the foods you like and avoid those you don't. Keep in mind that your sense of taste doesn't work alone: 'When we talk about flavor, it comes from what's in our mouth but also [from] the volatile chemicals from what we're eating or drinking migrating up to the nose,' says Pamela Dalton, an olfactory scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. While it's widely claimed that between 75 and 95 percent of what we perceive to be taste actually comes from the sense of smell, a precise percentage has been hard to prove; even so, many researchers agree 'that olfaction plays a 'dominant' role in the tasting of food.' TIP: Eat a wide variety of foods—and describe them to lock in the experience. A study in a 2022 issue of Nature found that healthy adults who engaged in taste recall training became better at recognizing and recalling sweet, salty, sour, and bitter tastes they'd previously been exposed to. To improve your gustatory memory, treat yourself to a range of these different taste sensations. Focus on the flavors and the way the foods feel in your mouth—then describe them in words. While drinking wine, Budson recommends focusing on the various flavors and sensations on your tongue. Get a feel for things Most people don't think of memories related to the sense of touch—often called tactile memory—but research shows that people are remarkably adept at storing and recalling memories of how objects feel. 'Touch sensations are processed in the parietal lobes, close to the frontal lobes and next to the movement processing area,' Budson says. This allows you to integrate the experiences of touch and movement in ways that help orient you and navigate your surroundings—which is why you can hold a cup of coffee without looking at it or spilling it. TIP: Channel your inner preschooler and make time for sensory play. Research has found that engaging in tactile memory training can improve sustained attention and working memory. You can do this at home by running your fingers through bowls of water, rice, and dried beans and noting the differences in how they feel. You could also try making shapes with clay while focusing on the way it feels in your hands. If you pay attention to sensations that feel good or uncomfortable, it can help you make wise choices in the future. For example, if you take note of the discomfort you feel in a roughly textured shirt, it'll help you remember not to buy clothes in the same fabric in the future. Your tactile memory can also help you decide if a tote bag you've loaded up is going to hurt your hand or shoulder, based on previous experience. Ultimately, strengthening your senses and your memory is all about paying attention to the world around you, Schooler says. He recommends engaging in breath-focused meditation, using your breath to anchor your attention, then shifting your focus to whatever sights, smells, or sounds are arising. Herz agrees: 'The more attention you pay to anything—and attention is multisensory—the more it will reinforce whatever information you're encoding in your brain.' This article is part of Your Memory, Rewired, a National Geographic exploration into the fuzzy, fascinating frontiers of memory science—including advice on how to make your own memory more powerful. Learn more.
