Fragrance Quote
Diane Ackerman wrote that smell was the first of our senses, so successful that its tissue “grew into a brain”: “We think because we smelled.”
In Her Own Words
“Smell was the first of our senses, and it was so successful that in time the small lump of olfactory tissue atop the nerve cord grew into a brain. … We think because we smelled.”
— Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses (1990), chapter 1, “Smell”
Essential Details
Ackerman on Smell and the Brain at a Glance
- Speaker: Diane Ackerman (born 1948)
- Source: A Natural History of the Senses, 1990, chapter 1
- Status: Short quotation for commentary; in copyright
- Note: Page number not confirmed; check the print edition for exact wording
Why the Quote Resonates
Ackerman states, in a few words, a popular idea in the science of smell: that the brain’s older structures grew around the sense of smell. Many neuroscientists would phrase it with more caution, but as a summary of how closely smell is wired to emotion and memory, it is a useful one.
A Sense Older Than Words
The passage explains why scent responses can feel instinctive. See Ackerman on the memory of smell for the companion passage, and compare Rousseau’s eighteenth-century remark that smell is the sense of the imagination. The History of Perfume shows how people have worked with that power.
Why it matters
Smell is among the oldest senses, which helps explain why scent responses feel immediate.