Aromatherapy can help you recall specific, often positive memories more clearly, and may aid recovery from depression, a new study shows.
Scents are more effective than words at evoking memories of specific events, researchers report in the journal Feb. 13 JAMA network open.
This could help people with depression shake off negative thought cycles and rewire their thought patterns, the researchers said.
“Improving memory can improve problem-solving, emotion regulation, and other functional problems commonly experienced by people with depression,” said Kimberly Young, associate professor of psychiatry and senior research scientist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. said.
For the study, researchers asked 32 adults with major depressive disorder to breathe in a glass bottle containing powerful scents they were familiar with while breathing in scents, both good and bad. I asked him to recall his memories.
Scents ranged from orange to ground coffee to shoe polish to Vicks VapoRub’s distinctive sharp eucalyptus scent.
Researchers say previous studies have shown that people with major depression are less able to retrieve certain memories from their lives.
Researchers found that patients repeat self-deprecating thoughts such as “I’m a failure” and “I fight with my friends a lot,” which can contribute to depression and show otherwise. He says he can’t remember possible events.
Young, a neuroscience researcher, thought that an area of the brain known as the amygdala might help break that cycle.
Researchers say the amygdala controls the “fight-or-flight” response and helps us focus our attention on specific events.
Early in her career, Young realized that involvement of the amygdala also aids in memory recall.
Researchers say there is evidence that smells act directly on the amygdala, triggering memories that feel vivid and real.
“It was surprising to me that no one had thought of using odor cues to investigate memory recall in depressed patients until now,” Young said in a university news release.
The results showed that depressed people had stronger memory recall when they received odor cues rather than verbal cues.
For example, they were more likely to recall a specific event, such as going to a coffee shop on Friday, than a general memory of going to a coffee shop before.
Memories stimulated by smells are also more vivid, immersive, and realistic, the study found.
The researchers added that participants were also more likely to remember positive events, even though they were not given instructions on what to remember.
The researchers next plan to use brain scanners to prove that scent does engage the amygdala, better than verbal cues.
