That's the term I was looking for!! A colleague of mine was more successful in her googling than I was, and finally found the word to describe what I've been experiencing.
Here's the lowdown:
Involuntary memory is a conception of human memory in which cues encountered in everyday life evoke recollections of the past without conscious effort. Its binary opposite, voluntary memory, is a deliberate effort to recall the past. The term was coined by French author Marcel Proust. From this philosophical root, involuntary memory has become a part of modern psychology.
Although it was great to finally remember the name of the phenomenon, I'm not sure it's strictly accurate to describe me, as in my extensive research (ok, just Wikipedia) I haven't seen any mention of a specific thing (sound, noise, smell) repeatedly causing the same involuntary recall. More research to do methinks....
But just for my own enjoyment, I've included an image of Marcel Proust; he's a dapper chappy isn't he?
Anxious not to veer too far away from the sneezing but not to become obsessed with trying to count, I've been making a mental note generally of the sneezing and can conclude that it's somewhere between 5 and 10 times a day. This morning when I woke up at 4am (with a very slight hangover after too much red wine last night) I had a little sneezing fit of about 5. Sometimes when I'm a bit hungover I get a blocked up/runny nose - connection?)
Here's the Synesthesia Research I am hoping to become involved in - maybe I'll ask them about Proustian Moments?
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sackler/research/synaesthesia
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