I have been thinking a lot lately about old things and events. I find it interesting that on certain special occasions, I can remember the scent and taste of the liquid I was vaping as vividly as if I had vaped it today. The same applies to food and drinks. It is as if the taste of that ice cream my late uncle used to buy me in the summers of my childhood is still in my mouth. It was a dinosaur-shaped popsicle. Anyway, being this old, we don’t call them ‘dino’ anymore because people say that’s childish. So, it was dinosaur-shaped. It had strawberry and vanilla, or chocolate and vanilla swirls, and its eyes were that classic ball-shaped chewing gum still sold today. It is an unforgettable memory for me, spiced up by the Neoton Família song ‘Tini’, which, although it was about 10 years older than when I first heard it, was very popular on the radio in the mid-90s. At least, that’s how I remember it. Almost anything can become embedded in us just as vividly, especially as children. This is especially true for scent, as for some reason, it is separate from our other senses. I like it when something can be explained scientifically, and this promises to be a very exciting topic. I hope not just for me. I think we can declare that such a thing exists:
The Memory of Tastes and Scents
I’d bet you could recall when and where you first vaped your favorite flavor. My first favorite flavor was TPA Turkish Tobacco, somewhat spiced up with a bit of black cherry, cookie, and chocolate. By the way, the recipe is up on Vaperina. I started vaping in the autumn of 2014; I had a basic eGo kit and was vaping Mellow Dew USA Mix, which wasn’t a huge deal, but it was much smoother and tastier than an analog cigarette. It became a favorite for many of us back then, after switching. This went on for many, many months, and then towards the end of spring 2015, I bought a used kit. An Eleaf Mini iStick with a Kangertech Protank clearomizer, the coil of which still had silica wick. That wasn’t a rarity back then, I mean the silica wick. Not long after, you could only get cotton coils. The Protank coils also got an upgrade, so the silica wick went completely out of fashion. I bought the mentioned Eleaf kit with the Kanger tank from a local vaper. I remember we met in Palotaváros (this is a district in Fehérvár) at Jancsárköz (this is Jancsár Street and its surrounding area); we stopped on the side of the Spar next to the local bus station to conduct the deal. I also remember that I paid 10,000 HUF for the mod, tank, and a few silica coils, which was quite expensive by today’s standards, and I got 10ml of ‘Turkish wonder’ as a gift. It wasn’t that hot yet, but the sun was beating down right on the side wall of the Spar where we were standing. It was early evening, around 5 p.m., but I’m not entirely sure about the time now.
This memory stuck with me relatively vividly because my brain valued it as special. Specifically because of the taste and smell of the Turkish Tobacco, which enchanted me immediately. The other such liquid was Journey Jedaneastica. I got the first bottle from the postman, then I ordered more because I liked it so much. So, this one doesn’t have a special or noteworthy story, but as soon as I recall it, I can taste it in my mouth. I don’t remember what tank I filled it in, but I do remember that when I vaped it, a kind of calm washed over me. I found that certain ‘I’m home’ feeling in that bottle of liquid. So, we don’t just store the memory itself, but also the emotional state experienced in that lived moment. Now it starts to get interesting. Let’s look at what happens to us when we store a memory based on taste and smell.
This is the so-called odor-induced autobiographical memory, which is also called the Proust effect. Although we recall the memory based on scents, usually taste also plays a significant part in this story. For example, when it comes to childhood memories, the scent of the cakes baked by our grandmothers that became our favorites is enough to make us feel like those mischievous little children again for a moment, and for that memory to bring a smile to our faces.
Taste and smell are closely linked, as during eating, 80% of the food’s flavor comes from the scent and only 20% is what we perceive with our tongue. This is due to the fact that researchers have identified more than 100,000 odor molecules, which have more than 1 trillion scent shades that we are capable of distinguishing. In contrast, our tongue can only distinguish 5 basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Although, according to some research, we are able to separate the fatty taste from the others, this is not yet a fully developed matter. We call the entirety of taste and smell ‘flavor’. This complexity is due to the fact that the oral cavity and nasal cavity are connected by the pharynx, nasopharynx, and posterior nasal apertures. This area also ensures that we can breathe while speaking. We feel the taste of the liquid vapor better when exhaling, or for some, only then, because that is when the vapor truly reaches the pharynx and nasopharynx, which connect directly to the posterior nasal apertures. This is how we can enjoy the taste of the liquid vapor. Now that we’ve clarified the functionality, let’s look deep into the neurological background, which is called olfactory memory.
-
Receptors on the olfactory epithelium located in the upper part of the nasal cavity bind odor molecules. The signals originating from here travel through the olfactory nerve to the olfactory bulb located on the skull wall, where information processing begins. Because, after all, to our brain, a scent is just information.
-
Signals generated by our other senses all pass through the thalamus. The thalamus filters, analyzes, and transmits the information. Signals coming from the olfactory system bypass the thalamus and travel on a direct path to the limbic system, specifically to the amygdala, which is responsible for emotions, and the hippocampus, which is our memory center.
-
A multitude of projections from the olfactory bulb connect directly to the amygdala and the hippocampus. A stimulus through the sense of smell directly activates the emotions in the amygdala and the memory networks stored in the hippocampus.
-
After the emotional and memory centers have already reacted, the information then reaches the orbitofrontal cortex. This area behind the forehead is responsible for conscious identification. This explains why we first feel the intense emotional reaction or nostalgia, and only afterwards are we able to put into words exactly what that scent was, or what we can associate it with.
Olfactory memory is a so-called involuntary autobiographical memory. This means that we do not intend to remember something, like when we are looking for something or want to quote from a movie, but it simply hits us involuntarily when we smell the taste or scent of a melon liquid that transports us back to when we last ate melon together with a loved one. Then, the amygdala retrieves the emotion that the memory evokes in us. Whether it is longing or joy, we cannot do anything about it. Only after this does the hippocampus signal back, and we are able to put the memory into words.A scent can remind us of a loved one, an event, or even a location, but this is also true in reverse. If you return to a place you haven’t visited in, say, 10–15 years, you will almost immediately recall what you brought with you as a refreshment, and that by the time you arrived, it was already almost warm, providing no real relief. Or, you might even recall the acidity of the fruit you ate during a picnic as a child if you take your own little one to have a picnic in that same spot. For a memory to live so vividly within us, it needs to be special. And all that requires is for one not to go to an ordinary place, but to be met with plenty of stimuli and an emotional jolt. Since the brain filters out many things from an experienced event that don’t seem important or are mundane, it does not filter out the intense emotions associated with scents. This filter is the thalamus mentioned above, which these stimuli and pieces of information simply bypass in such moments. By filtering, the thalamus gives a kind of framework to memories, but it discards irrelevant things so that we are not hit by too much input, which can lead to fatigue or, in worse cases, a breakdown.
When I first started commuting to Budapest, I initially memorized the routes because it was still, in a way, a novelty. But the more I went up there, the more mundane it became. The street signs and other trifles faded into oblivion. Therefore, the brain usually only stores or retains that there is smog, crowds, and exhaust fumes. When I was vaping my e-cigarette while walking around in Pest, the flavor and aroma in it were preserved, but later, if I traveled to Zalaegerszeg, my brain would assign that same flavor and aroma I vaped in Pest to it, because it notes the same thing from ZEG as from Pest: that there is smog, crowds, and tons of exhaust fumes, especially along Route 76 all the way to the city center. If I tried to remember where I vaped that liquid after a few days or weeks, I wouldn’t be able to distinguish whether it happened in Pest or ZEG. This is the work of the thalamus, and it protects our brain by leaving only the most important aspects for us.
As I mentioned, we have to filter memories because it is incredibly exhausting to memorize everything; our brains become overloaded and we suffer a mental breakdown. If the stimuli didn’t pass through the thalamus, or our brain’s filtering system, we would also memorize the license plate of, let’s say, that red Skoda Superb that was parked in front of the building we entered. If, however, there were several cars there, we would involuntarily memorize all of them that we glanced at, plus, upon entering the building, we would be able to report precisely how many men and women were inside, how many came in while we were there, how many people had black shoes, how many people were wearing shirts and how many buttons were visible. We would also be able to remember how many people had brown hair, blue eyes, who had a tattoo, and what design it depicted. Who wore glasses, who had sunglasses on their head, and we still haven’t even reached the clerk who has all those pens, pencils, erasers, and papers on their desk. We would obsessively pay attention to what picture was on the wall behind them, whether they wore a watch, what kind of dial it had, and so on… I think this turned out quite illustrative. And on the way out, we would notice which paving stone was paler than the others, and now I’ve truly maxed out everything that came to mind… So, the thalamus is also a kind of defensive system, because it doesn’t let us collapse from the sheer amount of stimuli. If someone’s thalamus is not working well, or if the stimuli completely bypass it, it is a torturous state, and we must be especially considerate of such people. Autism and ADHD are such conditions. For people diagnosed with autism or ADHD, the most suitable environment is being at home in their familiar surroundings where no changes occur, where they are not hit by too many stimuli, so their brains do not become overloaded, and they do not collapse. Parents raising children living with such conditions deserve maximum respect and understanding, because not only is it not easy to experience this, but helplessly watching as their child is having a breakdown is a parent’s greatest pain.
Coming back, then, we now know why a favorite flavor builds into a memory, how it gets a backstory, and how it remains eternal. If I had to describe it with a single word, it would be ‘joy’—that is the word that would wrap us in a pleasant nostalgia for our favorite liquid. But the same is true in reverse; we might abandon a flavor because we received news of a loss while vaping it, as we do not want to relive that agony. Our brain is a terrifyingly complex and extremely interesting neural and synaptic network that can simply be fascinating.
Little bits of trivia:
Proust effect:
Named after Marcel Proust, because he was the first to describe in his 7-volume novel series ‘In Search of Lost Time’ how a scent involuntarily transports one back to a childhood memory. In the novel, Marcel Proust transported his protagonist back to the unforgettable days spent in Combray during his childhood through the scent of a Madeleine dipped in tea. The first volume of the novel was published in 1913, and in this very volume, titled ‘Swann’s Way’, he already described the most famous example of involuntary memory in world literature. The last 3 volumes of the 7-part novel series were published after the author’s death in 1922.Jedanaestica:
One of Journey’s most impressive flavors bears the name Jedanaestica, which means ‘eleven’ in Serbian. It was named after the Serbian tram that has been operating since 1984, which is also famous by the same name. That is why there is a tram on the bottle. This number 11 tram is a living piece of history, as after World War II, it was the first tram that connected, among other things, the housing estates of Block 45 with a neighborhood of the city center, namely New Belgrade, the construction of which began in 1948 and finished around the 70s. Locals hold that the Jedanaestica, or number 11 tram, is one of the trams with the most beautiful views in New Belgrade.
Thank you for reading! 
To what memory does a certain flavor transport you back? 
so I couldn’t answer this briefly, I could write hundreds of lines. But I won’t, this snippet is excellent 