From: mha23x@gmail.com   
      
   How does the brain store olfactory memories?   
      
   02/12/2016 08:19:00   
   Researchers’ knowledge of how the brain stores memories primarily comes from   
   studies of visual impressions. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Jonas Olofsson will   
   investigate how we store olfactory memories. A reduced ability to perceive   
   smells may be an early    
   indication of Alzheimer’s disease and there are indications that olfactory   
   training can improve memory.   
      
   Researchers have long assumed that the brain stores and brings back memories   
   in a similar manner, whether the impressions are from sight, hearing, touch,   
   taste, or smell. However, there is growing evidence that the olfactory memory   
   is very different to    
   visual memory. For example, it is very difficult to describe smells or to   
   recognize them, while some smells can reawaken strong childhood memories.   
      
   To understand how scents affect the human brain, Associate Professor Jonas   
   Olofsson at Stockholm University will observe patterns of activity in the   
   parts of the brain that we now know are important for olfactory memory. Using   
   the very latest methods for    
   brain imaging, he will investigate how smells associate with linguistic   
   concepts (for example how the word rose associates with the scent of a rose)   
   and how olfactory impressions are linked to particular places to form episodic   
   memories. By comparing    
   this with visual impressions he will investigate what differentiates olfactory   
   memories from visual memories.   
      
   “As a Wallenberg Academy Fellow, I want to use brain imaging methods to   
   explore how different sensory experiences can be stored in such different ways   
   in our memories. It can help us understand why dementia makes different   
   memories disappear, while    
   others are preserved”, says Jonas Olofsson.   
      
   Jonas Olofsson will also study people with a high risk of dementia and try to   
   understand why olfactory memory often declines early in the progression of   
   dementia. In addition, he will investigate whether smell-based memory training   
   can strengthen the    
   brain and be used to treat people in the early stages of dementia.   
      
   “Wallenberg Academy Fellows is a group of wonderfully talented young   
   researchers, and it will be fun to get to know them”, he says.   
      
   More about Jonas Olofsson's research.   
      
   Stockholm University   
      
      
   http://www.healthcanal.com/brain-nerves/75799-how-does-the-brain   
   store-olfactory-memories.html   
      
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