Got some crippling fear you can't deal with? Researchers from Northwestern University have developed a new technique that rechannels memories while subjects sleep by blasting them with various odors. They are using smell to take away your fear!

Scientists conditioned patients to be afraid of a certain face by showing them a picture of the face along with a specific smell and then administering an electric shock. They would eventually leanr to fear the image and the associated smell.

The scent would trigger fear even when the patients were asleep and not being shocked, but after many exposures, the fearful reaction would fade away, along with the association of smell.

The study sheds light on the strong relationship between emotion and smell and scientists suggest that this is because the olfactory bulb where smells are processed is close to the amygdala and hippocampus. This is where emotion and memory are processed.

Read more over at the Washington Post. [The Washington Post]