How food’s smell can trigger time travel

As per the findings of recent research, older people exposed to food flavours 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 flavour-based cues for self-defining memories in later life” was published in Human-Computer Interaction by Professor Corina Sas of Lancaster University, Dr Tom Gayler, formerly of Lancaster University, and Vaiva Kalnikaite of Dovetailed Ltd. Their work explored the feasibility of 3D-printed flavour-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 a hospital after giving birth.

Professor Sas said, “Our outcomes indicated that personalised 3D-printed flavour-based cues have rich sensorial and emotional qualities supporting recollective retrieval, especially when they distinctively match the food..