![]() But as it turns out, regular mammalian nasal tissue seems to be able to pick up pheromones just fine-at least in some animals. The problem with that theory when applied to humans, however, is that the tiny VNO duct behind each of our nostrils is not always present, plus the genes for its receptors seem to be inoperative. Scientists have long thought that a specialized structure in animals' noses, called a vomeronasal organ (VNO), detects pheromones. They also hope to study whether female odors can similarly influence male mood and hormonal activity.Īlthough the nitty-gritty of their dispersal remains obscure, pheromonal detection mechanisms are becoming clearer. Wysocki and his colleagues are currently seeking National Institutes of Health grants to find out just what the "magic bullet-or bullets-are in male body odor" that elicit female responses, he says. The presence of this compound has been reported to make women feel more relaxed. Yet more studies with sweat have explored the strongest isolated candidate so far for a human pheromone, known as androstadienone, which derives from the male hormone testosterone. H.H.U.'s Pause, meanwhile, has demonstrated that humans can sense alarm scents in anxious or fearful people's perspiration. Odors given off by the breasts of breast-feeding women, for example, can render childless females downright randy-although a particular chemical messenger remains unidentified. Other results over the years have hinted at pheromones altering adults' moods. Research published last year pointed to secretions from the areolar gland "bumps" on mother's nipples as the source of the behavior-modifying, odorous molecules that cue a baby to find its food source. "Newborns will move in the direction of the odor source," Wysocki says. In nature, pheromones that induce gradual physiological changes of this kind are dubbed "primers." Those that cause a behavioral response-such as with the smitten male silk moths-are called "releasers." In humans, the most salient example for a releaser pheromone does not involve sex but rather its product: newborn babies, who seem to be guided to a mother's breast by scent. But a putative pheromone behind this time-of-the-month alignment has not been isolated, Wysocki says, and subsequent work has poked statistical holes in the initial findings. Subsequent research has shown that armpit sweat-from females or males-when placed on women's upper lip, can modify cycle time. Some of the first evidence for subtle smell cueing came from reports that women who lived in close quarters, such as those in college dorms, ended up with synchronized menstrual cycles. "Early on it was discovered that there's some action there," says Charles Wysocki, an olfactory neuroscientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. The first steps have focused on areas of the body that already omit noticeable odors-in particular our gland-filled armpits. But the scientific search for human pheromones is still in the early stages. Nothing quite so obvious is happening with people. ![]() "Just a very few molecules are enough to get the male to fly to the female." "The males are enormously sensitive to it," says Tristram Wyatt, a zoologist at the University of Oxford. The term "pheromone" itself came about in 1959 with the identification of bombykol, a powerful aphrodisiac secreted by female silk moths that can work over kilometers of distance. Pheromonal messages can range from the competitive, such as the "stink fights" of male lemurs, to the collaborative, such as ants laying down chemical trails to food sources. These precise cocktails of compounds trigger various reactions in fellow members of a species-not all of which are sexual. "My guess is that a lot of our communication is influenced by chemosignals."Īnimals, plants and even bacteria produce pheromones. "We've just started to understand that there is communication below the level of consciousness," says Bettina Pause, a psychologist at Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf (H.H.U.), who has been studying pheromones and human social olfaction for 15 years. Smell, it seems, plays an underappreciated role in romance and other human affairs. Rather than positing that single, pheromone-esque compounds strike us like Cupid's arrow, investigators now suggest that a suite of chemicals emitted from our bodies subliminally sways potential partnerings. Still, after decades of research, the story in humans is not quite so clear. ![]() And if advertisements about pheromone-laden fragrances are to be believed, one might conclude that humans also exchange molecular come-hithers. ![]() But scientists have long debated whether love-or, at least, sexual attraction-is literally in the air, in the form of chemicals called pheromones.Ĭreatures from mice to moths send out these chemical signals to entice mates. ![]() Love might be in the air on Valentine's Day, metaphorically speaking. ![]()
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