Human Senses 1. Smell and Taste (19 of 21)

Human Senses

A smell most of us would rate as mildly pleasant has become the loveliest thing in the world.
l remember seeing my mother through the eyes of a 5 year old, and of cause to me she was beautiful - he looked like a princess to me.
A perfume in tended to bring pleasure, can be tinged with feelings of sadness.
The last time l smelt this out of no where l had this scene as me as a little kid.
A big fairground, er flashing lights everywhere.
l remember everything being really high up.
Erm my Nan er who use to wear this - was towering above me.
And there were lots of lights, you know, coloured light bulbs everywhere.

The strange thing is l didn't even know l had that memory until the the scent came along and there there l was kind of er to dropped in to this little world all of a sudden.
Personal experience can dramatically alter how we respond to smells.
So the team at Monell found that different people often had slightly different reactions to bad smells.
But there was one stench that produced an amazing range of responses.
What was that stench?
That is in fact erm vomit odour.
To most of us it's pretty unpleasant.
Ooh.
It 's not a very pleasant smell Vomit?
Vomit The chemical that gives vomit its arid punch is called butyric acid.
ooh my goodness gracious me.
That's absolutely horrible.
ohh, that's dreadful l don't know But butyric acid isn't just found in vomit.
Yes its some sort of cheese.
Stale cheese.
So the smell isn't that bad if the first thing that comes into your head is something you like.
Oh Parmesan.
We're all born with mild aversions to some smells to guard us from danger.
But as we grow up our reactions are shaped by what actually happens too us.