Researchers have discovered that giving names to odors not only affects our perception of them but how they are processed in our primary olfactory cortex, the area of our brains related to our sense of smell.

Participants were given minty and citrusy odors to sniff, which had been labeled with two words; for example, mint-menthol or eucalyptus-menthol. While sniffing, participants were scanned using an ultrahigh-field (7-tesla) functional MRI (fMRI) machine.

— Read more in Naming Scents: How Labels Shape Our Perception of Odors at Neuroscience News.

[Sandeep Robert] Datta, whose HMS lab studies how animals use senses to understand the world around them, says that neuroscience has revealed the mechanisms behind odor’s power to spur memory — a power with evolutionary origins. Our ancient ancestors relied on smell to build maps of their surroundings and remember where they’d been. “You can think of the original brain as being a sense of smell plus a sense of navigation plus a sense of memory,” Datta says. “That explains why all those structures are so intimately connected, and why odor memories are so evocative.”

— Read more in The Connections Between Smell, Memory, and Health at Harvard Medicine.

Previous research has hinted at the idea that interactions with the opposite sex could accelerate aging. Building on this foundation, Garratt’s study takes a step further by demonstrating that even without direct interaction, sensory cues alone are potent enough to drive these aging effects.

“This study sheds light on the profound impact that sensory information — what we see, hear, and smell — can have on our bodies, potentially influencing our health and the way we age,” Garratt explains.

— Read more in Exposure to certain odors and pheromones speeds up the aging process at Earth.