Aug 27, 2023 18:00:00

It turns out that cognitive ability is dramatically improved by sniffing various scents when going to bed every night

It is known that 'smell' is strongly associated with human memory and emotions, and

it has been pointed out that loss of smell may be an early sign of Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease. In an experiment conducted by a research team at the University of California, Irvine , it was found that elderly people who smelled different scents every night experienced a dramatic improvement in cognitive performance.

Frontiers | Overnight olfactory enrichment using an odorant diffuser improves memory and modifies the uncinate fasciculus in older adults
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1200448

Sweet smell of success: Simple fragrance method produces major memory boost – UCI News
https://news.uci.edu/2023/08/01/sweet-smell-of-success-simple-fragrance-method-produces-major-memory-boost/

Powerful connection found between scent and memory has profound implications • Earth.com
https://www.earth.com/news/powerful-connection-between-scent-and-memory-may-help-combat-dementia/

Exposure to Certain Fragrances During Sleep Dramatically Boosts Cognitive Function : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/exposure-to-certain-fragrances-during-sleep-dramatically-boosts-cognitive-function

Among the various senses that humans have, the sense of smell may be less conscious in our daily lives than sight and hearing. However, there is a strong correlation between olfaction and neuronal function, as the decline in smell often precedes cognitive decline, and studies have shown that abrupt loss of smell is associated with decreased gray matter in the brain. suggested to be related.

``The sense of smell has the privilege of being directly connected to the memory circuits of the brain . The sense of smell may be more strongly associated with memory than other senses.

A team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine, tested 43 elderly people aged 60 to 85 who did not show memory impairment to see how sniffing a lot of different scents every day affected their cognitive function. I did an experiment.

Subjects were given a diffuser that diffused the scent of the oil into the room, and were also given cartridges of seven different scents: rose, orange, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, and lavender. About half of the subjects were given cartridges with a strong scent, but the remaining subjects were given cartridges with only a faint scent. For six months, the subjects rotated from among the seven cartridges and set them in a diffuser before going to bed every night, filling the bedroom with the aroma scent for about two hours while sleeping.

Before and after the six-month experimental period, subjects underwent a cognitive test using a word list that measures memory. As a result, it was found that the group that received the scented cartridge had a 226% increase in cognitive performance compared to the group that did not.

In addition, when analyzing the brain scan images of the subjects, it was also found that the health of the brain pathway called

the left uncinate fasciculus was better in the group that smelled the strong scent. This pathway connects the medial temporal lobe involved in memory and the prefrontal cortex involved in decision making, and it usually declines with age.

This experiment was conducted on elderly people who did not have problems with cognitive function, but the research team will investigate in future research what effect it will have when people diagnosed with cognitive impairment smell a strong scent. We are planning to investigate whether

'We've all experienced the powerful power of scent to evoke very old memories,' Yassa said. No intervention has been made for the loss of