Proust revisited: odors as triggers of aversive memories

Abstract

An experimental paradigm was used to investigate whether aversive memories, similar to those experienced by patients with posttraumatic stress disorder, evoked by olfactory triggers differed from memories evoked by auditory or visual triggers. Seventy-one healthy participants watched an aversive film, while simultaneously being exposed to olfactory, auditory and visual triggers, which were matched on intensity, valence, arousal and salience. During a second session one week later, participants were randomly exposed to one of the three triggers, and asked to think back about the film and to rate the resulting memory. Results revealed that odor-evoked memories of aversive events were more detailed, unpleasant and arousing than memories evoked by auditory triggers. These results further validated the Proust phenomenon and have clinical relevance as odors can be very powerful cues in evoking aversive memories.