How notes affect the brain.

"Scent is the only sense that reaches the brain's emotion and memory centers almost directly, bypassing the slower, rational parts entirely."

Most of what we sense travels first to the thalamus (the brain's relay station) before reaching the cortex where we become aware of it. Smell is different. Olfactory signals go straight to the amygdala (which processes emotion) and the hippocampus (which handles memory), with almost no detour. That's why a single note can trigger a memory faster than a photograph can, and why a fragrance can shift your mood before you've consciously named the smell.

Below are the notes that appear most often in the fragrances we cover, grouped by their commonly associated effect. These are associations and tendencies, not medical claims, but they're consistent enough to be worth knowing.