{
  "abstract": "Background: Odours reach limbic and prefrontal targets through a uniquely direct pathway and are often claimed to enhance cognition, yet experimental evidence for specific essential oils is mixed and frequently confounded by expectancy. We tested whether a brief inhalation of peppermint or clove essential oil, compared with no odour, alters immediate free recall of a visual object array. Methods: Sixty healthy adults aged 18-50 years were randomly allocated to peppermint oil, clove oil or no odour (n = 20 each). After 30 s of inhalation (or none), participants studied a 4 x 4 array of 16 pictured items for 20 s and then wrote down every item they could recall, without time limit. Groups were compared with one-way and Welch ANOVA, Welch-corrected pairwise tests with Holm correction, Hedges' g with 95% confidence intervals and Bayes factors. Results: Recall differed across conditions (Welch F(2, 37.0) = 8.53, p < .001; omega2 = 0.14). Participants exposed to peppermint recalled more items (11.20 +/- 2.14) than those exposed to no odour (8.45 +/- 2.04; g = 1.29, 95% CI [0.61, 1.97], p(Holm) < .001, BF10 = 134). Clove (9.55 +/- 3.19) did not differ reliably from either no odour (g = 0.40, p(Holm) = .203) or peppermint (g = 0.60, p(Holm) = .127; BF10 = 1.29). Conclusions: A single brief exposure to peppermint oil was associated with substantially better immediate recall than no odour. Because the peppermint-clove contrast was inconclusive and no placebo odour was used, the data do not establish an odour-specific effect; general arousal and expectancy remain plausible contributors. Pre-registered, laboratory-based replications with placebo odours, blinding and arousal measures are required.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Üsküdar University"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "B. Akar"
    },
    {
      "name": "T. Altıntas"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1t4svnmn565kz.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.31.763290",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.31.763290v1.full",
  "id": "1t4svnmn565kz",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.31.763290v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.31.763290v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-31",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1t4svnmn565kz.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-03T12:21:09Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.31.763290",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.31.763290v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Brief Peppermint Odour Exposure and Immediate Free Recall of a Visual Object Array: A Three-Arm Randomised Experiment",
  "title_text": "Brief Peppermint Odour Exposure and Immediate Free Recall of a Visual Object Array: A Three-Arm Randomised Experiment",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T00:21:19Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1t4svnmn565kz",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}