Despite the various ways

Recommendations

Info

Despite the various ways smell protects us, humans often count it as one of the senses they could do without. In a recent study by McCann Worldgroup, “53 percent of those aged 16-22 and 48 percent of those aged 23-30 would give up their own sense of smell if it meant they could keep an item of technology.” For me, too, it was a sense I thought I could do without—until I lost it. The more I researched anosmia—the medical term for my condition—the more questions I had. Smell is strongly tied to memory, so did this mean that the memories I would make as an anosmic would be more difficult to recall years later? Would I ever fall in love again if I couldn’t physically smell another’s scent, the chemicals intimately communicated by the human body? Would I have trouble bonding with my own child one day? Would I lose my connection to myself if I no longer was acquainted with my own body odor? And why did a minor concussion entirely knock out my ability to smell? y own research suggests that likely my loss of smell was caused by my brain bouncing against the front of my skull when it hit the ground, severing some 400 hair like olfactory receptors that bind odor molecules at the back of the nasal cavity, which pass through a honeycomb-like cribriform plate, and carry signals to the olfactory bulb in the brain. When the nerves are damaged, they are no longer able to send signals to the olfactory bulb, which connects to the amygdala, interpreting and mapping up to one trillion different odors. Wafts of fruity aromas form a soft blue cloud over one’s face People can live without their sense of smell, so there have been fewer resources devoted to the research on the topic. But according to the researchers at the Monell Center in Philadelphia, almost more than 6.3 million Americans are living without their sense of smell. Founded in 1968 as the center for taste and smell research, the institution is attempting to learn more about our sense and its relation to quality of life and overall wellbeing. In early 2014, the center began A Sense of Hope which is a three-year awareness and research campaign for anosmia. If some odor input to the brain ceases, it can be assumed that behavioral or even an emotional changes might occur. 19 seeing smell
If odor input to the brain ceases, it can be assumed that behavioral or emotional changes might occur. When I visited the center recently, I learned why I’ve been depressed lately. According to Pamela Dalton, an great experimental psychologist at Monell, the direct connections between olfactory receptors and the amygdala creates a feedback loop in the brain when you smell something. If odor input to the brain ceases, behavioral or emotional changes might actually occur. “In some animal studies where researchers have ablated all the animalss sense of smell, they do see behavioral changes,” she says. “The animals seem to have certain neurotransmitters reduced in the circulation of their bloodstream, which may be associated with a certain blunted emotional state.” When I describe my olfactory condition, she offers, “[It’s like] you’re getting the broad brush strokes but not all of the detail, right?” This is exactly it, I think. rowing up in the suburbs of Sacramento, one of the smells I do remember is that of freshly cut grass in the summertime. Its scent signaled freedom because it was the sweetest and most verdant right around the time school let out for summer vacation. In summer, the smell of chlorine became my eau-detoilette. My sister and I learned how to swim at our next door neighbor’s house, and while we were in the pool, the smell of homemade potato pancakes. “the smell of fresh air is rectangular, coffee is a bubbly cloud shape and people could smell round or square” Also, I distinctly remember those fall days the rice fields were burned in the lowest recesses of valley in Sacramento County. The brown smog hung thick in the air, burning my eyes. An acrid odor held on, nestling in my hair, hinting at the sickening smell of too much caramel corn. Purple daisies smell like yellow triangles and purple squiggles 20 seeing smell
Page 1 and 2: spring ’16 issue 1 curated scents
Page 3 and 4: s 3 5 7 9 11 13 pick your nose : wh
Page 5 and 6: h a t s m e l l ? ? “ Scents are
Page 7 and 8: When Matt Stonie has a bad day at w
Page 9: t h e i r p e r s o n a l i t y W I
Page 12 and 13: INE YEARS AGO, on an April morning
Page 16: The Anosmia A b y s s

Bloodhound

Transform your PDFs into Flipbooks and boost your revenue!

Bloodhound

Transform your PDFs into Flipbooks and boost your revenue!

Delete template?

Save as template ?