Aroma in Action: Enhancing Cognition with Peppermint
By Whitney Kuwamoto, Behavioral Neuroscience, 2019
Peppermint is most commonly known as a breath-freshening agent or a tasty additive to holiday candies, but did you know that it also possesses considerable medicinal properties? Most significantly, peppermint can have notable effects on the human brain by enhancing cognitive functions.
If you think this all sounds too good to be true, rest assured, there is ample evidence behind why smelling peppermint is so beneficial.
Recent research has found that simply the aroma of peppermint essential oil could improve memory, reasoning, concept formation, attention span, and problem solving if inhaled orthonasally, through the nose. Inhaling the scent of peppermint is a non-pharmacological way to enhance human cognitive performance. It can even be grown in your own home! Additionally, researchers found peppermint helpful in alleviating the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, a neurodegenerative disease that affects patients’ functional memories, is currently incurable by modern, lab-made drugs.
In a patient with Alzheimer’s, abnormal amounts of proteins deposits, known as plaque, accumulate throughout the brain and nerve cells called neurons die, resulting in an eventual loss of memory. Although nothing can be done to stop the spread of the plaque, researchers found that the smelling peppermint oil helped improve Alzheimer patients’ symptom of a weakening memory, keeping their neural signals strong and healthy.
To further understand the effects of peppermint on the brain, one must first understand the process behind learning and memory. The reasons behind the human brain’s ability to learn new material and form new memories can essentially be described in two words: long-term potentiation (LTP). LTP, known as the cellular mechanism behind learning and memory, creates long-lasting increases in the strength of signals between neurons in the hippocampus, a structure in the brain particularly important for long-term memory. The longer the neurons are subjected to LTP, the stronger the signals between hippocampal neurons become, thereby making learning and memorizing material easier and faster.
A study of peppermint’s effect on LTP in the hippocampus after orthonasal inhalation shows a direct correlation between peppermint oil and increased LTP, causing enhanced memory. Peppermint works independently of the effects on mood and motivation; therefore, exposure to peppermint aroma functions to improve cognitive function during learning and memory retrieval.
This natural aroma, with benefits that are almost too good to be true, provides a natural way to enhance cognition without requiring ingestion. So what’s the wait? Pack a peppermint-scented product in your school bag and prepare to experience the full benefits of this festive aroma.
