How does memory work in the brain?

Encyclopedia of Opinion

Question: How does memory work in the brain?
Position‹5 of 5: Memory is strongly effected by our senses
Argument: Smell and memory

Our sense of smell is intimately linked with the memory mechanisms in our brains.

The argument

An evolutionary, strong memory of sense of smell gave an advantage to our ancestors. In the wild, smells can advertise a dangerous food item or predator, and identify safe foods, or a potential mate. Due to the advantage of remembering the experiences associated with smell, we evolved a connection between our memory systems and our olfactory system. The locations of smell, memory, and emotional processing in our brain can explain this link. The olfactory bulb, where our brain processes smell, is located at the bottom of the brain and connects to the nose. Significantly, this bulb has direct connections to the amygdala and the hippocampus, the areas responsible for emotion and memory processing. These connections create a link between smell, emotions, and memory in our brain.

Premises

[P1]A strong memory for smell gave our ancestors an evolutionary advantage in identifying predators, dangerous food, safe food, and mates. [P2] This drove a connection between our olfactory and memory systems. [P3] The olfactory bulb sits beside and directly connects to the amygdala and hippocampus, the brain's emotion and memory centres. [C] Therefore, because smell is so tightly linked to recall, memory is strongly affected by our senses.

Counter-arguments

Smell and memory being linked is simply a coincidence. Smell simply helps stimulate memory, but there is nothing extra special about this connection. Auditory and visual cues help recall memories too, and our sense of smell is no different than these. In fact, we use our sense of smell for information encoding less than vision or hearing, so it is even less important than our other senses in regards to memory.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] The interplay between smell and memory is no different than the interplay between our other senses and memory.