A Question About Memory

[vorlon13]

I just had a realization during dinner.  When I remember sounds, I hear them in my head.  When I remember seeing, I see in my head.  I can also relive touch to a more limited degree. But with the exception of salt, chili peppers, and garlic, I can't pull up and relive tastes.  Nor can I relive smells.  I have a descriptive memory of smell and taste, but not a you are there sort of memory.  It's more like a memory captioned with and this stank in a brown organic way or that tasted extraordinary in a citrus and nut sort of way.

But smell and taste are great triggers for memory.  If I smell chlorine I'm at the pool.  Taste cardamom bread and I'm a child on Christmas morning.

Everyone else at the table admitted to not being able to play back tastes and smells. 

Can anyone remember tastes the way they remember sound and sight?  Why should there be any difference?

Here are 2 very different movies that each explore how our memories work (or don't work).

The movies are not everyone's cup of tea, and they have adult themes.  Still they make for an interesting double feature and can get one thinking about how our memories work.

Memento

Dark City

[Jenny A]

---

I just had a realization during dinner.  When I remember sounds, I hear them in my head.  When I remember seeing, I see in my head.  I can also relive touch to a more limited degree. But with the exception of salt, chili peppers, and garlic, I can't pull up and relive tastes.  Nor can I relive smells.  I have a descriptive memory of smell and taste, but not a you are there sort of memory.  It's more like a memory captioned with and this stank in a brown organic way or that tasted extraordinary in a citrus and nut sort of way.

But smell and taste are great triggers for memory.  If I smell chlorine I'm at the pool.  Taste cardamom bread and I'm a child on Christmas morning.

Everyone else at the table admitted to not being able to play back tastes and smells. 

Can anyone remember tastes the way they remember sound and sight?  Why should there be any difference?

---

Here are 2 very different movies that each explore how our memories work (or don't work).

The movies are not everyone's cup of tea, and they have adult themes.  Still they make for an interesting double feature and can get one thinking about how our memories work.

Memento

Dark City

Thank you.

[The Grand Nudger]

I don't know how to put it plainer.  It's not a question of memory accuracy but how you remember.  Are you remembering words describing a taste or an actual taste sensation?

  

Both/all of the above.  I remember the sensation watermelon or celery and I think "cold".  I feel the sting between my teeth.  I hear the crunch in my ear.

[Jenny A]

  

Both/all of the above.  I remember the sensation watermelon or celery and I think "cold".  I feel the sting between my teeth.  I hear the crunch in my ear.

Cool

[TheRealJoeFish]

Yeah, I'd have to say, for most things I eat, I can reproduce a sensation of what they taste like. The sensation actually takes place on my tongue; I think what I'm doing is remembering a rough sketch of which taste buds fire when I eat a particular food

[vorlon13]

And just an illustration of how are bodies can sometimes mislead us;

because of some nerve damage in my left hand, I have a patch on my palm about the size of 4 postage stamps that has a curious malfunction. When I touch something cold there, it doesn't register as strictly cold, it registers as cold and wet.

Even now, probably 15 years after the minor accident that hurt the nerve, I still get surprised when that patch of skin touches something cold.

If the function of a nerve can be altered that way, what of our memories and the wear and tear of decades of rough and tumble living ?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I forgot the question.

Boru

[robvalue]

I have fantastic audio replay in my head. Images are OK, but not as good. Touch, taste and smell I can just about recreate, but it's nothing like the first two.

[Little lunch]

Jenny A, I know exactly what your talking about.
But I never thought of it til you said it, so thanks and wow, that's cool.
So I got to thinking. I think an orgasm may be in the same category.
I can remember and describe one, but not come close to feeling it at all.
It makes me wonder if visual and auditory senses were ever as strong as the others to begin with in terms of physical satisfaction.

[abaris]

Can anyone remember tastes the way they remember sound and sight?  Why should there be any difference?

I seem to remember childhood tastes. Not sure, how accurate these memories are, but there were lots of treats that are no longer round because they either went out of production or were considered unsafe since.

But my earliest memories are like short video clips anyway. A smell, it's usually smell rather than sound, triggers something and a short scene plays in my head.