Science dipped into emotions

When you think you have done for the day, and try to relax, that’s when the “thoughts” crack the soil. You start thinking about what happened in the recent past. You start wondering what you are going to do in the coming months. You start dreaming. I sometimes wonder why our brain loves to dive in the past. Why does it even want to visit those places, those folded pages, which we have lived to the fullest. Memories that you share with your friends, the stupid things that you do with them, create a special place in your heart. You remember every single thing that you have done with them. According to the neuro science, memories are stored in two different forms. One, the short term memory and the other, long term memory. That’s how the brain works in getting out the trash cleaned and storing only few things into the long term section, if not, we would have flooded our brain with tons of unwanted information. You still remember those days when you came back home after a long day at school, and without even changing your uniform, you ended up playing outdoor. I personally believe our generation was really lucky, because we have played outside. We had endless games to play, to chunk down few of them, we played cricket, football, volley ball which school kids play even now, but we had few other games that we have played like top, hide and seek, catching a thief, marbles and the list would go on and on. We still remember every single moment of the days that we have lived. Those were the days when we went to each other’s place to call out for a game. A single thing associated with that makes your brain dive back into that very moment which you have truly lived. Those summer vacations when you have plucked mangoes, not by hand but by hitting a stone, and collecting the heap with joy. All these memories pave a way into the section of the cortex and it remains shared within numerous neurons spread across. Another fascinating thing with the memory is a fragrance. Yes, a fragrance is also a emotion, that is stored into the olfactory lobe of the brain. Each and every smell that you have experienced in the past, is clogged with a memory that clings to it. So a smell of raw mango, would take you down the lane into the summer vacations. The smell of jasmine, would make you remember the garland your granny used to offer to lord ganesha. The smell of soil, when it rains, will definitely run you down the days when you have tasted that wet soil as a kid. The smell of green herbacious odor, takes you down the lane when you had rolled upon a grass. The smell that you have had, gets along your brain and is stored with either a emotion or a visual effect or sometimes both. It would be rather strange to know, but the smell is also associated with your mood. Some fragrances make you feel happy, some fragrances make you feel sad and some make you feel into the nature. The olfactory lobe of the brain is the section where in the odour is analyzed by our brain. The olfactory lobe has several olfactory bulbs which are connected with the amygdala and the hippocampus of the brain. So, as the odour reaches this particular area, it triggers a series of emotions. Apart from smell, no other sensory organs are linked to the hippocampus and amygdala of the brain, where the visual and sensory emotions are stored. That is the reason, a smell can provoke endless hidden memories, and can trigger your emotions, your behaviour. A fragrance can take you all along the path that you have traversed. People suffering from anosmia (A disorder where in a person cannot smell), do not feel anything, they cannot connect emotions with sensory behaviour. They feel depressed and find no interest in the life. That’s something uncanny, but that’s how the science is dipped into the emotions!