Scent Therapy: Unlocking Memories for People with Depression
Depression can often cloud the memories of individuals, making it difficult for them to recall specific moments from their lives. However, a recent trial suggests that “scent therapy” could hold the key to unlocking these autobiographical memories (AMs) for people with depression. The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, involved 32 adults with major depressive disorder and utilized familiar scents as prompts to trigger specific memories.
Previous studies had attempted similar memory tests using words and pictures as cues. In this trial, the researchers decided to switch between scents and words to determine which trigger was more effective in jogging people’s autobiographical memories. Surprisingly, they found that participants recalled more specific memories when cued by smell.
“It was surprising to me that nobody thought to look at memory recall in depressed individuals using scent cues before,” said senior study author Kymberly Young, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. Scents have a unique ability to evoke strong emotional memories due to the direct connection between the olfactory system and the memory centers of the brain.
Michael Leon, a professor emeritus of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California, Irvine, who was not involved in the study, explained, “The olfactory system is the only sensory system that has a direct, superhighway access to the memory centers of the brain and the emotional centers of the brain. All the other senses have to take the side streets to get there.” Harnessing smell could potentially rewire the emotional centers in depression and unlock the memories associated with them.
Improving memory could have a significant impact on problem-solving, emotion regulation, and other functional difficulties commonly experienced by individuals with depression. By helping people recall specific memories, the trial aimed to disrupt negative thinking patterns caused by overgeneralization. People with depression tend to lump individual events into broad categories and overgeneralize negative emotions tied to those events. This memory bias makes it challenging to break free from negative thinking patterns and debunk negative thoughts about oneself.
During the trial, participants were asked to recall memories, both positive and negative, after sniffing 24 different odor samples or hearing words that described those odors. The scents ranged from lavender and cumin to whiskey, cough syrup, and shoe polish. The study found that memories triggered by scent cues were more specific, arousing, and vivid compared to memories cued by words.
The research team plans to conduct future trials incorporating brain scans to observe how the amygdala, a key emotion-processing hub in the brain, responds to scent therapy. They hope that larger studies involving more diverse samples, including individuals without depression, will further investigate and explain these associations.
It is important to note that this article is for informational purposes only and does not provide medical advice. However, the potential of scent therapy in unlocking autobiographical memories for people with depression offers a glimmer of hope in the field of mental health research. As scientists continue to explore this promising avenue, it may pave the way for new therapeutic interventions that can improve the lives of those affected by depression.