Want a Better Memory? Stop and Smell the Roses
(Washington, Reuters Health, 3/9/07)

Jan Born of the University of Lubeck in Germany, and team, had 74 subjects play “Concentration-type” games, requiring them to find matched pairs of items. While playing, some participants inhaled the scent of roses. Afterwards Born’s team monitored the brains of the volunteers, who slept inside MRI tubes where they were again exposed to the rose scent. When the investigators tested the subjects the next day, they found that after the “odor night” participants recalled 97.2% of the card pairs learned before sleep, but only 86% if they were not exposed to the rose smell while asleep. The researchers noted that the MRIs showed that the odor activated the hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with learning new things, but only when administered during slow-wave, not REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. These findings suggest that odors can reinforce new memories in the brains of sleeping individuals.

(Science)