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St Hugh’s Fellow discusses Proust’s phenomena on BBC Radio 4’s “PM”

St Hugh’s Tutorial Fellow in Experimental Psychology, Professor Asifa Majid FBA, was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s “PM” programme last night about the Proust phenomenon which is the experience of a smell triggering an emotionally rich autobiographical memory often from early childhood.

Research has been undertaken by French scientists into what it is that makes childhood smell memories endure the way that they do. Previously researchers have speculated that neurons generated around birth might be especially important for encoding smell memories. To test this they gave mice aged under a month specific smells in a enriched environment where they were able to play and at the same time be exposed to a specific smell. They found that the mice showed a preference for those odours later in life.

Commenting on the research, Professor Majid said, ‘While the research does give a possible biological mechanism for why some childhood smells stay with us for so long, it doesn’t explain the Proust phenomenon, as this is not just about remembering a smell, it’s the fact that a smell transports you to a specific moment, and we can’t say if mice have that ability. In human psychology studies what we’ve found is that it tends to be an odour that’s specifically associated with a particular memory, and that you don’t then frequently experience it. So for me it was going back to my primary school and the smell of damp coats and all the other smells together triggered a very vivid memory.’

To listen to the programme please click here (begins at 44:51)