The sound of a moped in the light, spring night. Followed by the lingering scent of a rainy, gravel path, wet grass and sleepy, so sleepy bumble bees ... the first tentative melody of the blackbird. Spring sure evokes some intense emotions within most of us. But what does science say about it all?

”It’s more about experience and a learned behavior,” says Helena Backlund Wasling, brain researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy in Göteborg. "Children for instance don’t react much at the return of the sun.” Backlund Wasling says that scents probably play a part in an explanation for what we call ”spring feelings,” since the scent and the emotional centers are closely located to each other in the brain. "Nothing can wake your emotional memories as quickly as scents,” she says. "When we smell the scent of freshly ground coffee from an outdoor café or the scent coming from barbecues we remember how wonderful last spring and summer was.”