Smell

When you take a deep whiff of your morning coffee, the smell of those fresh-roasted beans darts into parts of the brain responsible for emotional and memory processing, but our other senses don't work in the same way. That's why smell can trigger a happy memory more quickly than touching the hot coffee mug or tasting that first sip. Scientists suggest that there are a number of reasons that our bodies treat scent differently than other senses. From hunting and gathering food to finding healthy mates, linking smells with memories that stir up desire, happiness, or even fear is biologically useful for humans. Humans have one other thing to consider when scent is at play: context is key. Experiments have shown that while scents are important to our animal brains, our highly visual nature can mingle with and directly influence our reaction to scents. Audio cues that align with scents matter, too.