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That marvelous organ, the brain, continues to surprise researchers. A brand new study by Northwestern University shows how the brain readily learns to differentiate between similar smells through passive experience, thus shedding light on how we learn to identify thousands of smells from birth.
Researchers observed that "when you have prolonged sensory experience with one smell, you become an expert for smells that are part of that original category," says Dr. Jay Gottfried, assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Thus, familiarity with one mint, for instance, renders an improved ability to differentiate among various minty smells for a minimum of 24 hours. College media were quick to point out the advantages for novice wine aficionados.
"Previously no one knew what part of the brain was responsible for this type of learning," says Wen Li, lead study author in Northwestern’s Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center. Now we do.
