Without a sense of smell, many of the distinctive features of a food’s flavor are missing, the researchers added. “Labels prompt us to reconceptualize an odor – to change how we think about and experience it.” “Once someone tells you it’s pumpkin spice, it will seem even more pumpkin spicy,” Cormiea says. But once they know what it is, they will perceive the taste and smell even more distinctly, Cormiea says. Like if someone was handed a pumpkin spice drink in a generic cup, they might think it smells familiar, but not quite be able to place it. However, for such an evocative sense, people have a very hard time identifying smells they encounter, particularly without other sensory input to help. When you consider how close this brain region is to the area responsible for memory, it’s no wonder the mere mention of a pumpkin spice latte can trigger warm fuzzies. Even when people merely expect a smell, that neural zone fires up. She points to evidence that just reading smell related words, for instance pumpkin spice, will spark activity in the area of the brain that processes olfactory stimuli, the piriform cortex. Smells can tap memories more powerfully than any of the other senses, says Sarah Cormiea, a Johns Hopkins doctoral candidate studying human olfactory perception. “We often long for the arrival of fall at the end of a hot summer, and our sense of smell can summon up the season early.” The association that the smell has with the season in our memories allows it to powerfully evoke the refreshing feelings of fall” says Jason Fischer, a professor of psychological and brain sciences. “Pumpkin spice aromas emerge in the fall in shops and cafes, coinciding with the arrival of colorful leaves, family gatherings, and back-to-school bustle. Those notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger trigger deeply rooted cozy memories of autumn.
Johns Hopkins University perception researchers can say a key to understanding why people love pumpkin spice is the smell of it.
Newswise - Fall is still days away but at coffee shops and grocery stores, it’s already peak autumn thanks to the arrival of a certain flavor that has come to signal the season’s unofficial start. News Research News Releases Journal News Medical News Science News Life News Business News Expert Pitch Google Fact Check Research Alert Marketplace News With Video/Audio Multimedia RSS Feeds by Latest News Coronavirus News Currently Embargoed
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