Benefits Of Essential Oils

Emotions With Essential Oils When you inhale a fragrance, its scent molecules enter your nose, where they remain in a part of the nasal lining (the olfactory membrane). Within this lining is the olfactory epithelium, a specialised tissue containing receptor neurons (nerve cells) that become containers for the scent molecules. But these neurons don’t just trap the scent molecules and hold them inside the nose. They also send electrical impulses to the brain’s olfactory bulb, the centre of the sense of smell. The olfactory bulb then signals the amygdala, an area of the brain that contains emotional memories. (This is why the sense of smell is such an immediate trigger for remembering long-ago feelings and events.) The olfactory bulb also distributes signals to the sense of taste, housed in the gustatory centre, and this signalling is what makes aromas a key factor in how food tastes. Olfaction—the sense of smell—is the only one of the five senses that is directl...