Trick question

[AG Sachsenberg]

How long can you remember a certain smell for?  

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Verkaaft's mei Gwand `I foahr in himmel!
Sell my clothes I am going to Heaven!

[Ripsnort]

Hmm, well, do you mean how long does it take for your nose to adjust to a smell?  I believe its about 4-6 min. before the signal to the brain weakens, and you adjust...

In regards to smell memory, I had an operation when I was two yrs. old to reduce the length of my tongue... (please, no snide remarks, I realize it would have been a positive thing to keep it now that Gene Simmons is famous)...they used to use a local for kids then, I remember the black "mask" coming down over my mouth, and the smell of rubber...because everytime I go snorkeling, and I put the mask on...I remember that surgical operation from 39 years ago.

[AG Sachsenberg]

Had my Tonsils out when I was 7 and I firmly remember the smell of that rubber mask as well.  which brings me to the second part of the question.  I am doing a paper on this subject.  Smell being in the same instance in the brain focusing on memory.  Say you meet someone yet the next day you forget their name, with smell it is the same way.  Traumatic experiences in our lives will make us remember more keenly as opposed to something which is insignificant.

[miko2d]

 

Originally posted by AG Sachsenberg:
Had my Tonsils out when I was 7 and I firmly remember the smell of that rubber mask as well.

 You spoiled imperialist! you call that traumatic experience?
 I had my tonsils removed at 3 1/2 with just a local novocain (sp?) shot.

 Setiously though, the property of human memory is to forget the traumatic experiences rather then retain them. That is a major factor in staying sane.
 Obviously, people that do not have that mechanism working properly should be carefull about choosing their experiences.

 miko

[AG Sachsenberg]

 

Originally posted by miko2d:

 Setiously though, the property of human memory is to forget the traumatic experiences rather then retain them. That is a major factor in staying sane.
 Obviously, people that do not have that mechanism working properly should be carefull about choosing their experiences.

 

Ah yes but sometimes we canot expect those unforseen traumatic experiences.  A car accident, falling off a ladder.  When you look at social disturbances among humans, these can and will affect us for the rest of our life.  Sometimes we have no control over them.  Take for instance a man, almost lost his life.  This as we can see is very traumatic and will have repercusions later on in his life.  Maybe subtle, but never the less they will occur at different variations depending on the person.  Could be something minute as uncontrollable "yet sporadic" twicthing to say a speech impediment.

Sometimes a horrible event will block our memory of a certain event.  Sometimes that same event will be reenacted everyday for the rest of our lives.  For me remembering that certain rubber smell just as they were trying to gas me will be etched there forever.  I will leave it at that for now.    

[Mr. T]

Just as real life instance of how a person can "forget" a traumatic experience (it's in your subconscious or your subconscious blocks it from being remembered.. I forget exactly)...

This guy I met was in a car accident, he took an on-ramp doing 90MPH in a hooked up Acura Integra (I think.. I forget exactly... but he had it all decked out to go really fast). They lost control (or didn't see the turn coming) and the car went off the side of the on ramp and down a hill where it rolled 16 times.

Basically both guys got REALLY smashed up. But without seeing the pictures, it's hard to actually portray how one of the guys looked in text... but I'll try. The car looked a flat bed had been dropped on it, the entire thing was FLAT. Jaws of life were broken out to get the passenger out of the car. He was essentially SCALPED. His left eyelid was still attached to the skin on his head... but it was closer to the back of his left ear than it was to his eyeball.. in other words, it was completely ripped off and you could see his skull. His left eye looked like it had the retina (the bulgy part on the front of the eye?) torn off... which it did and discolored it (saw pictures of what he looked like after being pulled from the wreckage).

He was conscious through the entire thing and could be heard screaming throughout the entire ER.

Doesn't remember a second of it... probably the intense pain he went through forced him to forget.
Definitely wasn't brain damage.. he's as dumb as he was before the accident.
-SW

[This message has been edited by Mr. T (edited 05-09-2001).]

[AG Sachsenberg]

Yikes SW, had 3 friends in a Integra as well rollin down the highway at 80 mph.  When one of those trucks carrying those big rounded steel cable thingy's broke loose.  The driver avoided it but lost control of the car and ended up flipping the car front to back 7-8 times.  The guy in the back was ejected thru the windshield thru the front after the first flip, "he was only one not wearing a seat belt"  

After the car came to a stop the guy who was ejected got up and walked over to the car.  Very freakish and he is very lucky to be alive and he remembers it vividly.  My other two friends required medical treatment and a ride to hospital.  Driver had broken right ankle from hittig the brake very hard and putting foot thru the floorboard.  Had to break his ankle to remove his foot.  Other guy had cuts all over his face and arms.  They said something from ground came thru and hit him.

Just goes to show sometimes depending on certain aspects memory will remain and sometimes will be brought back by pictures.  Sometimes it never leaves us at all which can be worse.    

[miko2d]

 

Originally posted by AG Sachsenberg:
Ah yes but sometimes we canot expect those unforseen traumatic experiences.  A car accident, falling off a ladder.

 You are right of course. What I ment was that an impressionable personality who tends to remember negative experiences forever should not probably apply for a job as a mercenary or a doctor or some other occupations where a deeply traumatic experience is pretty much guaranteed...

 AG,
 The short term memory loss is a common side effect of even a mild concussion. My friend fell from a bycycle, bumped his head and split his lip, brow and forehead.
 He was also concious the whole time, not much upset and quite clear minded. Except every few minutes he completely forgot everything that happened from the moment he stepped out from his house to that moment.

 The last it happened was the next morning in a hospital. He remembers now that he left home and the next thing is he is lying somewhere with his head all wrapped up and swollen and a major headache. That was quite a scare for him until a nurse came in and explained to him what happened.

 Many people tend to completely forget the whole periods of their lives (the details including major, not the fact that they had those periods) where nothing really bad happened but there was a feeling of discontent or depression - like some school years or military service.

 miko

[This message has been edited by miko2d (edited 05-09-2001).]