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How did I smell something through my phone screen? (lemmy.world)

submitted 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This has never happened to me before, but I was scrolling Uber Eats (even though I can't afford to get anything) and I saw a vegan Biscoff cheesecake and immediately smelled the sweet scent of Biscoff for a second. It wasn't like I just imagined how it smells like, I actually (at least mentally) "smelled" it as if it was there, and it made me consider if I was genuinely smelling something real (physically present) at the same time coincidentally but that makes no sense. The smell is very specific and I haven't had anything with Biscoff for quite a while and there is nothing around that would smell like it. I've never thought I had synesthesia (blending of senses/experiencing one sense as another) before but could this be a form of it?

I've read that olfactory response (smelling) sense memory is one of the strongest forms of sense memories, deeply ingrained in our subconscious. Smelling something familiar can trigger powerful memories and bring up emotions or even forgotten parts of your life. So maybe it can work in reverse as well, where seeing something familiar that you have a strong olfactory sense memory associated with (particularly a pleasurable one), maybe combined with taste memory (though it's notable I smelled it, not taste), could trigger such an intense reminder that it activates the actual memory of the smell as if it were really there?

Also, I may have partial anosmia (hyposmia), where I have difficulty smelling things, so that could play a role?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

The brain is, basically, a think-machine, even though it's "just" a lump of meat. The brain tries to make sense of stuff and piece everything together "logically".

Oftentimes the braim makes stuff up - your brain is very good at lying. Take for example vision - the eyes contain a relatively hole in the retina, yet you see a perfectly clear image. This is the "intended" purpose, but the core mechanism bywhich this is done is much more deeply rooted into the brain's main "function" - it's one of the core things the brain does. Its "thinking" is very malleable.

This can cause smaller "misinterpretations" of reality: Here's a personal example: when my grandfather died, I periodically saw his reflection in the front door of his house. It would be visible only for a second, and then disaopear almost immidiately. I had to be moving relatively fast for it to appear, and couldn't cause it to appear at will. 15 years later, I noticed it was actually my reflection, but since it was only visible in the exact same spot, from a certain angle, only in the evenings, with the porch lamp on and on a wood-textured PVC door, it took me that much time to piece all the puzlle pieces together and deduce the root cause. Me not having to visit his house all that often certsinly didn't help the situation.

The other is plain hallucination: Take arthritis. You have pain which is proven not to be caused by anything external. Your nerves just send the "pain signals", and you feel pain.

Additionally, sinesthesia isn't just something someone either has or doesn't, but it's a spectrum, and, all the senses are in fact connected on a quite deep level.

What you describe definately falls somewhere on this "misinterpretarion-hallucination" spectrum. Maybe there was nothing to smell, yet you felt you smelled something, caused fully by your unconscious influenced by past experiences. Or maybe there was a totally different smell that got turned into this smell, but you couldn't pick it out - as is the case with my grandfather and I.

This spectum can also be taken as the "physical-psychological" (cause) spectrum.

Maybe it's a one-off thing for you, or maybe it's a chain of conditions that'll get fullfilled again every now and then. There's most likely a logical explanation since the brain is inherently a logical machine, but chances are it's not. There are just too many variables at play as far as outside factors go.