You’ve probably experienced it: walking down the street when a smell suddenly brings back a vivid childhood memory—sometimes even accompanied by the exact emotion you felt at the time—and then, just as quickly, it’s gone.
What just happened?
The scent you encountered just took you down memory lane, triggering memories long past, even forgotten. However, this is a surprisingly common experience. Here’s what a few netizens to say about it after asking them online.
Evangeline shared that whenever she cooks with coconut oil, she’s reminded of the smell of copra while traveling along the highway in Quezon as a child. She recalls waking up in the jeepney, peeking out the window to see rice fields, and knowing they were close to her Lola’s home in Quezon province.
Meanwhile, Charmaine shared that she had used a particular brand of baby lotion from childhood through high school. As a working professional, she decided to use the lotion again.
“Very vivid ‘yung memories through the scent. Naalala ko bigla na 8-9 year old ako in our old room. Same na same memory nung after bath bihis sa room namin nung bata ako,” she shared.
[The memories through the scent are very vivid. I suddenly remembered being 8-9 years old in our old room. It’s the exact memory of getting dressed in our room after a bath when I was a child.]
She said that for this reason, she intentionally buys scents for grand occasions—so that the memories will be imprinted to memory. She shared how she and her husband even bought a scent just for their wedding.
Some people are reminded of their school years by the smell of freshly cut grass, while others recall joyful childhood moments with the unmistakable aroma of one’s favorite fried chicken.
To understand why certain smells bring such a sudden wave of nostalgia, it helps to look at how the olfactory system—our sense of smell—works and how the brain processes odors.
When your senses pick up information from the world, signals usually travel from receptors through nerves to the thalamus, the brain’s relay center. The thalamus then directs this information to key brain regions for processing, including the hippocampus, which is essential for memory (especially long-term memory) and learning, and the amygdala, which handles emotional processing.
Smell, however, takes a different route. When you inhale a scent—which happens constantly, even when you’re not trying—airborne molecules travel about six to seven centimeters into your nose and interact with the lining of the nasal passage. This lining contains approximately seven million receptors of olfactory neurons, each primed to detect specific odor molecules.
Imagine each receptor as a puzzle piece that only a specific molecule can fit. When an odor molecule finds its matching receptor, it triggers a neural signal that travels to the olfactory bulb, the “headquarters,” where all scent signals come together.
From the olfactory bulb, signals travel through the olfactory nerve, passing through the thin part of the skull just behind the forehead, and connect directly to brain areas that process smells, including regions key to memory and emotion like the hippocampus and amygdala.
Why you go scent-imental
What sets the sense of smell apart from other senses is its direct path to the brain’s memory and emotion centers. The olfactory bulb sends signals straight to the amygdala and hippocampus— only two and three connections away, respectively.
This close connection strengthens the link between scent, memory, and emotion, whereas signals from other senses take longer routes to reach these areas. A 2021 study even found that the link between the olfactory system and the hippocampus is stronger than with other senses, which may explain why smells can trigger such vivid, emotionally charged memories.
The hippocampus is also involved in associative learning, which connects two distinct ideas—explaining why a specific smell can trigger a memory even if you aren’t consciously recalling a past event.
It’s also worth noting that smell is tied to a particular type of memory. We have various types of memory. For instance, we have short-term memory, which helps us hold onto information momentarily, and semantic memory, which stores knowledge about the world.
Smell is particularly tied to episodic memory, the type of memory that captures personal, first-person experiences. This is why memories triggered by odors often feel so vivid and personal, transporting us back in time more powerfully than words or images.
Another notable feature of odor-cued memories is their resilience. They’re highly resistant to being forgotten, even when new information (or new scents) comes along—a phenomenon known as retroactive interference. This might be why certain scents can preserve memories with such lasting clarity.
Why that memory and not another?
You might wonder why a particular memory is stored and not another. The memory you’re recalling is likely tied to your first encounter with that scent.
Research has shown that the brain creates a “privileged” and lasting representation of the very first time a scent is associated with an object or experience, making it more likely to be remembered than later associations with the same smell.
This unique encoding may be the brain’s way of protecting us from harm and helping us learn about the world. It might also explain why certain childhood scents can vividly bring back specific memories—our brains may prioritize and preserve these early scent-based experiences.
Odor-cued memories also tend to be older, often rooted in experiences from early childhood, compared to memories triggered by words or images, which usually relate to experiences from around ages 11 to 20. This may be because our sense of smell develops very early—the only fully formed sense a fetus has in the womb.
These early scent-based memories are also formative. Since the sense of smell matures by early childhood, coinciding with critical brain developmental periods, the associations we build with certain smells can shape aspects of who we become.
For example, the flavors in breast milk—infused with taste and odor molecules from the mother’s diet and environment—can influence a child’s early food preferences and feeding behaviors, setting the stage for lifelong food preferences.
It’s also likely that you remember something if it’s tied to a strong emotion. This is why smell can also bring back difficult experiences. For instance, the smell of floodwaters can evoke the traumatic memories of Typhoon Ondoy.
But what about taste?
If you’ve seen “Ratatouille,” you might remember the scene where food critic Anton Ego takes a sip of soup and is instantly transported back to his childhood, recalling his mother’s cooking.
Taste, too, can evoke powerful memories—largely because it’s so closely tied to smell. The flavors we perceive are actually a combination of taste and smell. This phenomenon is known as retronasal smelling or smelling from the mouth.
When you chew, molecules travel from the back of the throat up to the nose, where they interact with the olfactory system. In fact, around 80% of what we taste comes from a food’s smell. Without smell, you’d be limited to the five basic tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory.
Want to try it? Pinch your nose while eating a strawberry or chocolate and notice how much flavor is muted without smell.
Our sense of smell is more than just a way to perceive the world around us—it’s a direct link to our past, a vivid reminder of moments and emotions that have shaped who we are.
So, the next time a scent takes you by surprise, embrace the journey—it’s your brain’s way of bringing a piece of your past into the present.
— CDC, GMA Integrated News
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