Scientists also discovered that if something is learned in the context of an odor, and if the odor is presented again during slow wave sleep, there is improved retention of the memory. Such areas include the olfactory cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala and one thing that the brain is always doing during sleeping/dreaming is memory consolidation, where new synapses form in the hippocampus to associate a form of event (or odor) with a certain memory. In fact, it's almost the complete opposite: some areas of the brain are more active during sleep than during the waking state. Our brain is not completely restless during sleep. Also, unpleasant odors are remembered more than pleasant ones, and that's why you will probably never smell that durian once again.īelow is a picture of a transition zone between the human olfactory epithelium (bottom) and the respiratory epithelium (top). This is why that flavor has to be 'exactly' right for you to experience the same emotional satisfaction as before.

Emotions affiliated with a certain smell is highly selective and therefore can only be triggered by a very specific type of smell. There are only 8 types of olfaction receptors, but we can smell up to 10,000 scents with training. This is why we are so inclined to treasure grandma's recipes, because the taste means something more than just the flavors. This is why when you smell the scent of your old teddy bear, all of your childhood memories flood back, and you likely would experience a déjà vu of that bright midday summer sun shining through the leaves while you are on a picnic with your grandma. The entire perfume industry is built upon this: a certain scent will trigger desires of wanting and pleasant memories. However, olfaction has the choice of both relaying through the thalamus or skipping this step altogether and going straight to brain areas such as the amygdala and hypothalamus, which both process memories and their affiliated emotions. The thalamus in the brain is often viewed as a “relay center”- every other sense must first go to the thalamus, where it must be filtered, and then is relayed to other parts of the brain. We will teach you a variation on the shrimp curry that is traditional in Burmese cuisine.

To compensate for the loss of flavors from the spices, the Burmese add fresh seafood ingredients, as seafood usually contains a good amount of natural umami flavor. As we talked about in our last issue, it is an onion/oil based curry, missing the 'key' curry ingredient: curry powder. It is similar to Indian curry, but less spicy.Īnnnnnd there's our Burmese curry. It expands on Indian curry by adding onions, carrots, and potatoes. There's also Japanese curry, a lesser known type of curry.

Thai curry expands on the Indian curry by adding locally grown ingredients and herbs, and one signature ingredient of Thai curry is coconut cream, which is the origin of the sweet flavor in Thai curry dishes. It is also the most influential type of curry, as it was spread throughout South Asia and Southeast Asia by Indian immigrants over the past several centuries. Indian curry gets its taste from a special mixture of spices (called masala) including the one that gave this dish its name: curry powder. When you think of curry, you probably think of Indian or Thai, and that's absolutely okay.

Midnight wave seeds