75. Smells Evoke Emotions and Memories

The thalamus is the part of the brain between the cerebral cotex and the mid brain functioning to process sensory information and sending it to the right part of the brain. All the senses send their data to be processed to the thalamus except for smell. Smell goes directly to the amygdala, where emotional information is processed. The amygdala is next to the memory centers of the brain.  Companies use scents to brand themselves; specifically hotels and retail stores.

Brooklyn supermarket using smells to boost sales (Enclavar)

Smells and the Brain

Takeaways

Scents are used in retail stores, hotels, malls and other places to evoke particular memories, emotions, & associations. Scents have been experimented within movie theaters, and there is some research on using scents while people are learning information online with computers. In the future, designing scents for emotional influence will be part of some user experience designers skill sets.