Week 0: Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Mia Chonko, and I have been a student at BASIS Independent Brooklyn since 5th grade. This week, I have officially begun working on my senior project. I aim to explore the link between smell and memory, and whether the smell–memory connection can be used in more structured, evidence-based ways to improve emotional well-being and cognitive support. 

I’ve always noticed how certain smells seemed to instantly transport me back to specific moments in my life, even those that I thought I had long forgotten. The scent of roses brings me back to my grandmother’s flower garden, where eight-year-old me helped her plant them. These memories tend to appear suddenly and vividly, often more powerfully than when I try to recall them by looking at pictures depicting the same events. Through my AP Psychology class, I learned that olfaction is directly linked to the limbic system (the group of brain structures involved in emotion and memory). Unlike the other senses, smell bypasses the thalamus (the brain’s sensory relay center that normally processes and directs incoming sensory information) and travels directly to the amygdala (the region responsible for processing emotions, especially fear and emotional responses) and the hippocampus (the structure that helps form and store long-term memories), helping commit scent-associated experiences to long-term memory. This led me to wonder whether the connection between smell and memory could be used intentionally as a tool to support cognitive recall. Scents are easily accessible, inexpensive, and deeply personal, making them especially appealing. By focusing on the intentional, evidence-based use of olfactory cues, my project aims to explore whether scent could serve as a gentle, noninvasive way to help people recall memories, manage emotions, and feel grounded, an approach that may be useful not only for individuals experiencing stress but also for caregivers, healthcare professionals, and researchers. I am also excited to work with my off-site mentor Dr. Masayo Omura. She is an expert in olfaction research with over 20 years of experience and is currently a senior research director and an adjunct assistant professor in the Biology department at Hunter College, one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York. Her research and current work in the field of olfaction will be valuable to my own research, and her guidance on future steps for approaching this project will be very helpful. 

To complete this project, I will primarily focus on peer-reviewed academic literature from reputable databases, such as the National Library of Medicine and PubMed, as well as university-affiliated journals. This will include studies in neuroscience, psychology, and clinical research that examine the relationship between smell, memory, and therapeutic interventions, particularly in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to written sources, I will conduct interviews with experts currently working in psychology and neuroscience to gain insight into real-world applications, ethical considerations, and ongoing research that may not yet be fully represented in published literature. My final product will be an academic research paper that will synthesize existing findings through critical analysis and will include my proposed outline of an evidence-backed approach to therapy that could be potentially used.

I am really excited to begin this project and I am really looking forward to working with my mentors and sharing my findings with everyone. Here is a link to my proposal if you want to know more!