Olfactory/Memory

Today I was applying lip gloss which I have purchased almost a year back. Nivea Pearly Shine. I liked the light pink hues and bought it instantly.  Though it kept lips soft and supple, my lips looked ashy. Hence I stopped using it. Yesterday, I found it in a box and decided to give it a chance. The moment I applied, it brought back the vivid memory of Cambodia where we holidayed last year. I know that was the time I started using it. It always happens. Smell has the power to invoke oldest memories hidden in the corner of our mind. A smell in the whip of air triggering emotions as well as related memory.

Scientific reason is "Smell is first processed by Olfactory bulb which starts inside the nose and runs along the bottom of the brain. The bulb has direct connection with amygdala and hippocampus, the two areas that implicates in emotion and memory."

I absolutely don't remember studying about these areas in college. I remember mugging cranial nerves XII with a Mnemonic, which goes something like "One Of Our Training Teacher Asked For....." that I am unable to recall now. However, it is a mnemonic from Sidney Sheldon's "Nothing Lasts Forever" I memorized the best. "Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel Virgin Girl's Vagina Ah Heaven." Though I am appalled and insulted of this sexist mnemonic, I learned it well.

For the layman, Cranial nerves are 12 pairs of nerves situated on the bottom surface of the brain. Some of these nerves bring information from the sense organs to the brain, some control muscles, some connected to glands and organs such as heart and lungs. They are Olfactory, Optic, Occulomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Vestibulococchlear, Glossopharyngeal, Vagus, Accessory, and Hypoglossal. Now read the mnemonic again.

Recently I came to know about another mnemonic, which could have helped in memorizing the types of above said nerves, whether they are sensory, motor, or both in an order. It goes like this "Some Say Marry Money But My Brother Says Big Brains Matter More. Is it dirty stuff easy to remember? It is in my case.