According to reporting from Popular Science, neuroscientist Dr. Rachel Herz of Brown University says there is nothing inside a pine tree that directly triggers relaxation or joy.
The tree’s chemistry isn’t acting like a natural antidepressant.
Instead, she explained, the reaction begins in the brain regions that handle memory and emotion, which receive scent signals almost immediately.
Dr. Rachel Herz explained that people respond to pine based on the emotional history they’ve built around it.
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Someone who grew up around winter holidays or outdoor adventures may find the aroma soothing.
Another person, whose first encounter with pine came during a stressful moment, might feel the opposite.
And for anyone who has never smelled pine at all, the scent is unlikely to produce much reaction.
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Wellness brands often promote pine essential oils as naturally calming because they contain terpenes such as α-pinene or limonene.
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But Dr. Rachel Herz noted that these compounds are not acting on the body the way a drug would.
The uplifting feeling happens faster than any pharmacological effect could occur, she said, because the brain is retrieving stored emotional associations automatically.
People often sense a mood shift first and only later recall the memory linked to it, if they remember it at all.
Humans learn what a scent means through experience, Dr. Rachel Herz added, unlike animals born with built-in scent responses that signal danger or safety.
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Context can flip a scent
Dr. Rachel Herz emphasized that the surroundings shape how a smell is interpreted. A forest walk or a holiday wreath can make pine feel peaceful.
But the same aroma inside a cleaning product or car air freshener may evoke something harsher simply because the situation is different.
In a study published in Perception her team conducted, participants were given identical scent samples but different explanations.
When told the sample was cheese, they rated it pleasant. When told it was vomit, they recoiled, despite nothing changing in the jar. Meaning, not chemistry, drove their reaction.
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Sources: Popular Science, and Perception.
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