Monday 25 November 2013

Memory : Underused Senses

Our senses of vision and hearing are used far more often than our other senses of taste, touch, and smell. This may be why there are common names for a lack of vision (blindness) and a lack of hearing (deafness), but not for a lack of the others. Humans used to rely on smell more than we do today. We used smells to track animals, navigate the oceans, and to tell if food was spoiled. With grocery stores, GPS devices, and refrigeration, people hardly know how to use their noses anymore.



Try to concentrate on your underused senses from time to time, especially if you want to remember something. The more senses you can bring to bear on the situation, the stronger associations you will create in your mind. Smell in particular has an important role in memory. Sometimes you only need a whiff of a smell to have a flood of old memories rush into your mind. This is because the olfactory system has a direct link to the hippocampus. Try to pay more attention to the smells that are around, it will help keep your mind in shape.

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