The power of scents on the nervous system

Smell is one of our five senses. It allows us to perceive the odors around us thanks to receptors called chemoreceptors which constantly sense our environment. Unlike hearing, sight, touch and taste, smell has a direct link with the center of emotions (the amygdala) and memory (the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampus) in our brain.

Smells therefore have the capacity to take us back to a memory or to influence how we feel and change our mood.

Ce privileged link between smell, emotion and memory is particularly used in certain cases for therapeutic purposes. Olfactory training can, for example, be offered as part of the treatment of post-traumatic stress.

Olfactory perception, that is to say defining whether an odor is pleasant or not, is specific to each person and depends on cultural and genetic factors. It can also be affected in certain physiological situations or pathologies:

• Pregnant women are more sensitive to odors due to hormonal changes from the first trimester of pregnancy.

• Some infections cause a loss, whether reversible or not, of the sense of smell.

• Olfactory problems can be an early sign of depression. It is also a disease in which olfactory perception abilities can decrease with the worsening of depressive symptoms.

There are several ways to measure the emotional impact of smells: facial expressions, pupil dilation, heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, salivary cortisol dosage, electroencephalogram, stimulation of receptors leading to a sedative and anxiolytic effect or even self-assessment questionnaires .

Researchers have therefore evaluated the physical and psychological impact in a basal state or in a state of stress, the influence that an odor will have on a group of individuals.

Inhaling certain scents causes a feeling of calming which can be assessed through conscious or unconscious testing. In the conscious testing, we ask a person to associate a smell with a color, an image, a word or even one of the 8 emotions of the Mood Mapping diagram developed by Stephen Warrenburg in the early 2000s. The volunteer is invited to do so. to say whether he feels happy, relaxed, sensual, stimulated, irritated, stressed, depressed or apathetic after smelling a perfume sample.

The unconscious testing will require more technical tools: the installation of sensors (for example, at the cerebral level to observe the waves emitted by the brain, at the muscular level to evaluate the variation in muscle tension) or a camera system to detect micro facial expressions. It is these tests that make it possible to demonstrate that a perfume has a positive effect on mood and stress levels.

Example of Mood Maping results in response to smells of clementine and vanilla

At HO KARAN, we have designed our products so that they are as soothing as possible, both on an active and sensory level. We have therefore surrounded ourselves with scientists and suppliers of raw materials who know the subject perfectly in order to offer you the best ingredients and fragrances of the market.

Here are some examples that you can find in the scents of our products and whose relaxing effect has been scientifically proven:

• lavender and rosemary, found in Miracle Balm, Day Over, Cure of Greenery et Farewell Buttons, reduce salivary cortisol levels, the stress hormone

• orange which is found in all our products promotes a calmer mood and more positive which can also facilitate falling asleep

• eucalyptus and lavender found in Miracle Balm reduce the perception of pain to soothe the nervous system

• bergamot in all our products and mint in the Green Fizz act on physical and mental symptoms of stress