The phenomenon where a sensory experience — especially smell or taste — involuntarily triggers a vivid, emotional autobiographical memory.
Named after Marcel Proust, whose novel 'In Search of Lost Time' (1913) opens with the narrator tasting a madeleine cake dipped in tea, which triggers an overwhelming flood of childhood memories.
Proust bit into a cookie and BOOM — his entire childhood came flooding back! Scientists named this after him! One smell, one taste, and your brain TIME-TRAVELS. Your nose is a time machine! ðŸªâ°
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