Camille Moreau/Photo credits: MAGALI COHEN / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
According to an American study, the use of familiar smells helps depressed patients recall specific memories, which would contribute to their recovery. Smells allow us to connect more vividly to these emotions.
The smell of your mother’s perfume, ground coffee or a freshly peeled orange…what if smells could cure depression? According to an American study, familiar smells stimulate the memory of patients, a capacity impaired by depression which must nevertheless be restored to recover.
Connect to emotions
Perfumes and other familiar scents, the evocative power of smells revives memories. Alice, 25, finds comfort in the smell of the laundry detergent her mother uses: “It’s a special smell that cheers me up when things aren’t going too well. It reminds me a little of times when it was joyful and it makes me smile again. And it’s a very warm smell,” she explains.
For depressed people, whose memory is impaired, it is all the more important to remember good times. Smells are particularly effective in this process: “The region of the brain that manages odors is located near the regions that manage memories. Smells are information that evokes emotions more than vision, hearing or reading in one word”, analyzes Sylvie Chokron, neuropsychologist.
Thanks to smells, memories are more vivid, more real, but also more positive, researchers are surprised. Enough to revive the words of Marcel Proust: “when from an ancient past, nothing remains, the smell and the flavor remain for a long time”.