Summary: Study explores the 3D printed flavor-based cues in memory recall during old age, finding the smells of certain foods from youth can prompt mental time travel to the past with an enhanced memory of early exposure to the foods.

Source: Lancaster University

Older people exposed to food flavors from their youth were able to time travel back to the past with an enhanced memory of the event.

The research entitled It took me back 25 years in one bound: self-generated flavor-based cues for self-defining memories in later life published in Human-Computer Interaction is by Professor Corina Sas of Lancaster University, Dr Tom Gayler, formerly of Lancaster University and Vaiva Kalnikait of Dovetailed Ltd. Their work explored the feasibility of 3D printed flavor-based cues for the recall of memories in old age.

Working with 12 older adults, they collected 72 memories, half involving food and half not involving food, each recalled twice. This ranged from barbecued mackerel at a golden wedding to eating strawberries in hospital after giving birth.

For food memory, the researchers worked with the participants to create bespoke flavor-based cues for each one. The 3D printed flavor-based cues are small, gel-like, edible balls, modeling the original food, which are easier to swallow with more intense flavors, without requiring all the ingredients and preparation.

Professor Sas said: Our outcomes indicated that personalized 3D printed flavor-based cues have rich sensorial and emotional qualities supporting strong recollective retrieval, especially when they distinctively match the food in the original experience and prompt emotionally positive self-defining memories.

All the participants were able to provide rich sensory accounts when prompted by flavour-based cues, with most of the details not being present in the earlier free recall.

Remembering a Green Thai curry dinner in Cambodia, one participant remembered: We went into the kitchen area, which was very basic and preparing all sorts of types of green vegetables, which I have no idea what they were, sitting on the floor. And then we would help cook them, stir fry them, and then we would help dish them up

But after being exposed to the 3D printed flavor-based cue of the Green Thai curry, the participant gave a more detailed memory of the chopping noises of cutting up the vegetables, me sitting on the floor cross legged with my friend, chatting together. And then when we went out, put stuff on the tables, the rest of the group coming out and we sit on long tables outside, the front of the school, so its outside in the open air to eat.

A striking outcome was the large number of memories cued by flavors that were recalled with strong feelings of being brought back in time.

Participants said: The roast beef and horseradish cue took me back 25 years in one bound . . .I could place myself at the table in the room . . .I ate that, and that actually provoked out of all the memories, quite a strong reaction actually. Just suddenly I was back.

Interestingly, the mere act of eating the cue was seen as a bodily re-enactment of the original event: It just kind of triggers a few more sensations. Perhaps when youre tasting it, you imagine yourself there.

The researchers say their research has particular relevance for dementia. Participants talked about the importance of food memories based on their own experiences of caring for the loved ones.

One participant whose mother has Alzheimers said: As soon as she smelled and tasted the food, she would say something like, Oh, this is like old fashioned food. This takes me back. She felt that it was something that she had had a long time ago.

Another participant suggested a scrapbook of food memories to trigger recollections of past events in people with dementia.

Professor Sas said: The 3D printed flavours cued recollective retrieval, eliciting sensorially rich and strong positive emotional experiences that participants deeply enjoyed.

Dr Gayler said: Working alongside people to create flavour-based cues highlighted how powerful but under used this connection is. Our design approach helped bridge this gap and showed the potential for future applications to create rich, multi-sensory memory aides.

Dr Vaiva Kalnikaitsaid: We finally have technology that can help re-construct memories using the flavour and scent of different foods in very compact shapes. These are the strongest cues to help us remember.

Author: Gillian WhitworthSource: Lancaster UniversityContact: Gillian Whitworth Lancaster UniversityImage: The image is credited to Lancaster University

Original Research: Closed access.It took me back 25 years in one bound: self-generated flavor-based cues for self-defining memories in later life by Corina Sas et al. Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

It took me back 25 years in one bound: self-generated flavor-based cues for self-defining memories in later life

those short, plump little cakes called petites madeleines [] I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate, a shudder ran through my whole body [] an exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses [] and suddenly the memory returns. The taste was that of the little crumb of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray [] when I went to say good day to her in her bedroom, my aunt Lonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of real or of lime-flower tea [] when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us [] the vast structure of recollection(Proust,2006, pp. 6163).

The above quote captures the evocative power of chemical senses for triggering memory recall with a feeling of traveling back in time, or the so-calledProust phenomenon.

While the phenomenon has been explored mostly in relation to the sense of smell, Prousts account involves also the sense of taste (Gibson,2016) as shown in our introductory quote and this additional sentence: the sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it(Proust,2006, p. 63).

Original post:
How the Smell of Food Can Enable Time Travel - Neuroscience News