Odors Memory

The next morning I smell nothing .Have I so quickly surrended my senses, or is the smell really gone” (Corbet 165). Once a person have been in a place for a long time certain things start smelling normal to

“Information flows from the outside world through our sight, hearing smelling, tasting and touch sensors. Memory is simply ways we store and recall things we 've sensed.” When we recall memories, the original neuron path that we used to sense the experience that we are recalling is refined, and the connection is made stronger. Sensory information in stored for only a few seconds in the cortex of the brain. This information can then progress to short-term memory, and then long-term memory, depending on the importance of the information received.

Smell, on the other hand, is the sense that comes from odor molecules attaching to the olfactory nerve. Air carries the odor into the nose. Then odor contacts the olfactory nerves at the top of the nasal passages. The the olfactory nerves send a signal to the olfactory bulb of the brain, and the nerve sends a signal to the front of the brain. The forebrain translates the signals of the odor into a specific smell (Swindle, Mark).

The hypothesis of the experiment is that contextual memory will be enhanced if the subject being trained sleeps after the training period has ended. The purpose of this experiment is to inspect the relationship that sleep shares with contextual memory retention. The procedures used in this trial include separating the subjects into two groups and implementing the Pavlovian method of fear conditioning as a training method for both groups. The first group would be trained for an hour before they would normally drift into sleep. The second group would be trained after waking up but before they had entered a state of activity. After the training finished, the participants would be subjected to testing for contextual fear at times of twelve hours later and twenty-four hours later. The participants for this experiment include sixty-seven male and female mice of the same species. The number of male and female mice used in the experiment are approximately the same. The results of the experiment indicate that the first group demonstrated a greater recollection of the contextual fear as opposed to the second group. The experiment is limited by the fact that it uses rodents as the subjects instead of humans thus it is possible to show a correlation between contextual memory and sleeping after the training, but not in humans until a different experiment is carried on humans. In future tasks the experiments could include a different procedure that is more subject friendly and introduce humans as the experiment

It has the ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimuli has ended. “ It acts as a kind of buffer for stimuli received through the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, which are retained accurately, but very briefly.” (Sensory Memory). Memory works with sensory details, it is the largest reason why and how people can remember certain things. Like the when you smell BBQ, it reminds you of the time you had a party with BBQ. “. Smell may actually be even more closely linked to memory than the other senses, possibly because the olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex (where smell sensations are processed) are physically very

There have been many experiments performed trying to find the correlation between sleep and memory. One of these experiments has showed that different stages of sleep has different effects on memory for instance, not only has sleep been seen to combine new memory with old long-term memories, but also helps stabilize memory (Born & Rasch, 2013). Using the Memory Interference Test (MIT), Amir conducted an experiment to further confirm the conclusion that the sleep improves a person’s memory. The experiment compared the amount of correctly remembered pictures by a sample people who had eight hours of sleep compared to a sample with only four hours of sleep. The hypothesis is that there is a correlation between the amount of sleep a person

Smells connection to emotion was also discussed, it turned out to be molecules with receptor signals capable of triggering memory through the olfactory part of our brain and the hippocampus, the site of memory

An article in Nature Neuroscience from February 2009 describes an experiment which was conducted regarding sleep and its correlation to memory. Memory was impaired after 35 hours of sleep deprivation weekly and constant shallow sleep. Regular sleep benefits memory as newly stored information is easily encoded. Proper sleep is crucial for processing and retaining new information. Those who suffer from sleep deprivation struggle to maintain new information and with comprehension skills. In order for students to maximize their learning capabilities, they need the proper sleep to be mentally prepared for

Additionally, to further support these theories, researchers tend to conduct studies on the famous patient case, HM, to propose the consolidation deficit theory, in which those with amnesia cannot turn short-term memories into long-term memories (Dewar et al., 2010). However, researchers Dewar, Della Sala, Beschin, and Cowan (2010), mentioned that HM’s case does not fully explain why a patient with anterograde amnesia has the ability to get better at cognitive tasks despite being unable to recall having performed those tasks at a previous time. On the same hand, Duff, Wszalek, Tranel, and Cohen (2008) mentioned that most individuals with anterograde amnesia experience heightened intelligence, attention, skill, and reasoning levels (procedural memory).

No significant effect was found for false recall and recognition, p = .20 and p = .94, respectively. There were no significant findings in the Group x List Type for false recall and recognition. There was a significant effect of list type for true recall and true recognition, p = .01 and p = .07.

The amount of sleep was self-reported by participants using a sleep diary. In the sleep diary participants would note the time they got into bed, how long it took them to fall asleep, the number and duration of awakenings during the night, what time they awoke, and what time they got out of bed. Misinformation or false memory was evaluated in a few different phases. In the first phase the participants took part in a

But can consolidation of memories be affected in the same way? In studies that concentrated on how Benzodiazepines (a substance used as a sleep aid and an anti-anxiety medicine) affected the quality of sleep and memory of events that happen during interrupted sleep periods. Subjects fell back asleep rather quickly, but come morning, had much trouble recalling the tasks they were given to complete earlier in the night. In studies that looked at memory between wake and sleep, researchers presented undergraduate students a verbal word as they drifted off into sleep. But of course, to ensure sleepiness the students were limited to two hours of sleep the night prior to the experiment. Researchers used an electroencephalograph (EEG), which is a tool to determine one’s position in the wake to sleep cycle. Using the EEG researchers determined when their subjects were asleep then either allowed them short periods of sleep or long periods before waking them. Once their subjects were woken up, they tested their memory through recognition. Results showed that the subjects who experienced short periods of sleep did, in fact, the memory test. In contrast, the subjects that could sleep for a longer period, in this case, ten minutes, had a greater difficulty remembering the word relayed to them in the five minutes prior to them falling asleep. These results were interpreted as an interruption of the transfer of the memory from short-term to long-term storage. Thus, the memory was in a sense erased and was unavailable to be recalled. This difficulty is an example of RA, as has been defined, and as an example of RA being induced by interruptions in the quality of sleep. However, if subjects were aroused in any way as they drifted off to sleep and were read their words, then it could be that AGA has been induced. What this fails to conclude however is if both

Researchers tested this idea by monitoring several individuals’ performance declines on memory tasks following selective sleep deprivation or administration of drugs that hinder the NREM-REM cycle. Performance on procedural memory

The smell receptors interact with the molecules of these vapors and transmit sensations to the brain. We need only a little amount of molecules of substance to trigger an impulse of smell in a nerve end, and we can smell more than ten thousand different scents. If it is a new scent it is possible to remember the scent and identify it again later. The scent captures one’s memory of the place; the nose makes the eyes remember. For the blind people, the sense of smell can help awareness of one’s location. Odour can also relate to hunger and the desire to consume. Since it is not possible to name all the odours, spatial qualities or experiences are often associated with scents. Positive experiences of smell can be used in design to induce positive memories or associations to a space, while negative smells can do the opposite. Bringing certain smells into a designed space can immediately stimulate emotions, guide us, or distract us. Designer Valerie Trent cites research that connects smell and memory; “People can often recall aromas from childhood or a distinctive odor they’ve only smelled once. Whatever your particular nose prefers, smells do enhance comfort and

Sleep is essential for optimal human function. In fact, a lack of sleep can actually affect important cognitive functions, like memory. A 2007 study added to the already substantial evidence that even acute total sleep deprivation impairs attentiveness, working memory, and reaction time in various tasks (Alhola, Polo-Kantola). One such way to further this investigation of the effects of sleep deprivation on memory is through the Memory Interference Test, or MIT. MIT is a program designed by Gaston Pfluegl, Ph.D., and Enrique Lopez, Psy. D., at UCLA to test the memory of students. Along with a memory test, the MIT also anonymously collected the physical states, mental states, and demographics of each student test subject, providing a substantial database through which students can test hypotheses, such as the connection between sleep deprivation and memory. Since the MIT requires short-term memory recall, the hours of sleep a student had before taking the test could have a noticeable effect on his or her performance. An unprecedented study this year found that sleep deprivation may actually even induce false memories, which would certainly impact a student taking the MIT because the test requires the subject to recognize images that have been previously presented to them (Frenda, et al). The hypothesis is that students who slept 8 hours before the test will perform better on the MIT than students who only slept 4 hours. The null hypothesis is that students who had adequate