Scent has the Potential to Treat Depression

According to a new study published in JAMA Network Open, familiar scents can help treat depression because of their ability to engage autobiographical memory.

Dr. Kymberly Young, a neuroscience researcher and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh studies autobiographical memories. From her prior work, she knew that people with depression can struggle with autobiographical memory and that improvements to memory can translate to a reduction in symptoms of depression.

Smell is processed differently than our other senses, going through the amygdala, the part of the brain that governs mood, emotions - and memory. Young said “scents trigger memories that feel vivid and “real,” likely because they directly engage the amygdala through nerve connections from the olfactory bulb.” 

But no one had studied whether engaging the amygdala could help depressed individuals access their memories more effectively. Rather than using costly and often inaccessible brain scanner tests, Young and her research team designed a low-tech study. Study participants sniffed glass vials containing potent familiar scents – from oranges and ground coffee to shoe polish, and even Vicks VapoRub, and were then asked to recall a specific memory, no matter good or bad.

Young and her team found that memory recall was stronger in depressed individuals who received odor cues as opposed to word cues. Those who received odor cues were more likely to recall a memory of a specific event (for example, that they went to a coffee shop last Friday) than general memories (that they have been to coffee shops before). Memories spurred by odors were also a lot more vivid and felt more immersive and real. 

“If we improve memory, we can improve problem solving, emotion regulation and other functional problems that depressed individuals often experience,” Young said.

Even though she did not direct participants to specifically recall positive memories, the results show that participants were more likely to remember positive events. Young now plans to conduct a follow up study using a brain scanner to prove that scents help engage the amygdala of depressed individuals more effectively than word cues.