Viva Brighton Issue #68 October 2018

INTERVIEW
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On the nose
‘The poet of the senses’
Salami, sundried tomatoes, herbs and
mushrooms… the rich aromas of the storage
room of her Italian grandparents’ house had a
profound effect on Emanuela Maggioni as a child.
“I realised that I could not replicate the emotion
I felt about their house without that unique
combination of smells,” she recalls.
Her curiosity about the relationship between
scent and memory has led to a career exploring
what is often called the ‘poet’ of the senses.
Emanuela, a research fellow in the University of
Sussex’s Computer Human Interaction (SCHI)
Lab, is looking at how smell could be exploited
in a variety of contexts, from enhancing a cinema
experience, to creating scent maps for the visually
impaired, to helping those with eating disorders
change perceptions of their bodies.
“It is one of our most powerful senses,” she says.
“We communicate with other humans using
biochemical signals, even if we are not aware
of it, and yet out of all the senses it is the least
researched and understood.”
In fact, the human nose can detect around 10,000
different smells.
The smell, or olfactory, receptors bypass the
‘grey matter’ part of the brain responsible for
interpreting information, and have a direct
pathway to the primordial brain, where emotion
and long-term memory are processed. This is why
we instantly like or dislike a smell without having
to think about it.
It also explains how our first exposure to a smell
creates a specific memory (famously known as
The Proust Effect after Marcel Proust described
a character in his novel À La Recherche du Temps
Perdu vividly recalling his childhood when eating
a tea-soaked madeleine).
Emanuela and her colleagues are creating
technology that both captures and simplifies this
complexity.
Their software toolkit, called OWidgets, includes
a device that delivers bursts of compressed air,
scented with essential oils selected for the effect
they have on a general population (for example,
lavender slows the heartrate and induces a feeling
of calm, while the scent of lemon is arousing).
One application currently being explored is a
form of “smell nav” for motorists.
“When you are driving you are busy with your
vision and your hearing, but the sense of smell
is subliminal,” says Emanuela. “So I can trigger
a smell to alert you that you are exceeding the
speed limit, or that you are tired.”
The device could also be used in cinemas. In
much the same way that a soundtrack matches
moments of excitement or tension, so certain
smells known to elicit feelings of calmness,
excitement or anxiety can be emitted at precise
moments.
Smell can also be used to train the brain to think
differently. In the SCHI Lab, they are exploring
how certain odours can reduce perceptions of
pain or body dysmorphia.
One of the greatest challenges for Emanuela is
convincing others that our sense of smell is just as
important as the other senses.
“If we lose it or it is damaged, then it affects our
memories, our emotions and, ultimately, our
chances of survival.” Jacqui Bealing
Photo by Stuart Robinson, University of Sussex
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