The first time you smell something forms a permanent imprint? T or F?

March 28, 2018 8:25 AM

I've been reading about the sense of smell. In particular there is the idea that the olfactory system goes directly to the limbic system. They say that the very first time you smell something, your emotional reaction whether positive or negative becomes permanently imprinted. You will have that same reaction to the smell for the rest of your life. So what's the truth? What's the scientific consensus on this?
posted by storybored to Science & Nature (8 answers total)

I can't speak to the scientific consensus, but my experience is definitely not in accordance with what you're describing.

I know that I have developed strong associations to particular scents long long after the first smell. I'm very much a "scent memory" type of person, and associate scents to people and experiences, and very often those associations aren't made when I first smell them. For example, the smell of cigarellos reminds me powerfully of a particular person (positively), but before him I had a very negative "Eww!" reaction to the smell.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 8:49 AM on March 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

Skunk spray used to give me nosebleeds. Now I lean in for a whiff, savoring it like a bitter espresso – one of life's delicious travesties.
posted by fritillary at 9:15 AM on March 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

Doesn't your own personal experience invalidate this? Mine sure does.
posted by praemunire at 9:21 AM on March 28, 2018 [8 favorites]

The concept you're reading about is a useful plot device, e.g. in the book Jitterbug Perfume. I think scents can sometimes elicit emotional memory, but not in an unchangeable / imprinted way.
posted by batter_my_heart at 9:25 AM on March 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

I assume you've read this from NPR where the guests talk about how the first time you smell a "new" smell your brain takes all the disparate parts of the new smell and melds them together into one hybrid smell where a name is assigned "Oh OK this is what coffee smells like" and from then on there's a special receptor that identifies that combo. They do not talk about the specific effect you're referring to and after doing some slightly-more-than-cursory exploring on the topic, i couldn't either. Where have you heard that?
posted by jessamyn at 9:37 AM on March 28, 2018

I swear I've read some research on this, but am having a hard time nailing it down. My understanding was that this works in the opposite direction. Strong emotions pair to a scent that happens to be present at that moment and when you encounter the smell again, the emotion comes forward. As an example, a whiff of Drakkar cologne elicits a happy feeling and sweet memories for me, despite the fact I don't really like the smell and it kind of gives me a headache. It was the cologne of choice for a boy I dated in high school. I'd smelled it lots of times before, being the cologne of choice for lots of boys back then, but it wasn't until that guy and the specific emotions and memories that were associated with him that it took on any greater significance than a smelly cologne.
posted by goggie at 10:26 AM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is demonstrably wrong. Repeated exposures to stimuli (including smells) in different contexts can and do change our associations with them.

I used to have a positive emotional reaction to the sights and smells of our local hospital because my first experience there was in the excitement and happiness of having my first kid. Several years and emergency room visits later? Not so much..
posted by fingersandtoes at 1:06 PM on March 28, 2018

Response by poster: Jessamyn, it was in a documentary - the particular statement is line 139 in the English subtitles.
posted by storybored at 10:09 PM on March 28, 2018