by Dale Andrews for Love-Scent.

com For many people, the human sciences are a fascinating but somewhat murky realm, filled with complex terms and indecipherable jargon. Some of the words might sou nd familiar from that early morning Biology class you snoozed through, but gener ally speaking its a dry and technical area unless you happen to have a background in biology or chemistry. Still, if youre like most of us, you also have a great deal of curiosity about hu man sexuality. And if youre reading this, its clear that youre also curious about h uman pheromones and the role they play in our sexual and reproductive behavior. Maybe youve seen some of the marketing hype that claims human pheromones are the u ltimate aphrodisiac. Or, maybe you stumbled upon an article in some scientific jo urnal that was so dense with science speak it was like reading a foreign language. If you want to know some of the basics about human pheromones, then read on! The following article will provide a glimpse into this relatively new science. What are pheromones? The term pheromone was coined by researchers in the 1950s and comes from the anci ent Greek words pherein (to carry) and hormon (to excite). Pheromones can be tho ught of as chemical messengers that have the potential to evoke responses in other s of the same species. Female rats, for example, will raise their rumps in a mat ing posture upon catching a whiff of a pheromone from the male of the species. For a long time, scientists and the general public believed that humans were so highly evolved that there was no longer any such thing as a human pheromone. Muc h of the reasoning was centered on the argument that humans didnt posses a specia lized organ in the nose the vomeronasal organ (VNO) that acts as a pheromone det ector in most mammals. However, by the 1990s researchers had found that humans d o indeed possess a VNO, and more recent research has shown that the organ will r espond to tiny amounts of pheromone (or pheromone-like) substances [1]. While scientists still havent shown that the human VNO is fully functional (i.e. connected to the brain) there is evidence to suggest that the normal sense of sm ell can pick up chemical signals. Whether the communication happens through our normal sense of smell or the VNO, one thing is clear: our body odors can unconsc iously affect others. Numerous studies have shown that the chemical substances ( in sweat and other odorous bodily secretions) can affect the behavior and hormon e levels of people around us. Female pheromones, for example, can regulate ovula tion in other women [2], and chemicals produced in male sweat can influence the mood and hormone levels of females [3]. It still isnt known just how many pheromones are produced by humans, but most stu dies have focused on two chemicals androstenone and androstenol. Androstenone is characterized by its somewhat urinous scent and androstenol has a specific musk y odor. These odorous substances are only produced by sexually mature humans and are found in greater concentration in males. Interestingly, these same chemical s are found in other species including swine. Do pheromones affect us? While there is plenty of evidence to suggest that pheromones do affect our soci al and reproductive behavior, the exact role of these chemical signals is someth ing that remains elusive. In most studies, androstenol has generally caused females to see males as more a ttractive. One team of researchers gave 38 men and 38 women a necklace with a pe ndant containing androstenol, which they wore while sleeping. The next morning, the subjects social interactions were measured and it was found that women wearin g the necklace had much more intensive contact with men [4].

In another study, volunteers were asked to rate photographs of men and women. Vo lunteers who were under the influence of androstenol rated the photos of women a s sexier and more attractive, and rated the photos of men as warmer and friendli er [5]. Androstenones effects are somewhat more difficult to understand. Researchers took a group of male and female volunteers and exposed them to androstenone. The men and women were shown a photograph of a male and then asked for their thoughts. Women reported their own mood to be less sexy when exposed to the chemical; men, o n the other hand, thought the male in the photo was passive or they reacted favora bly, if they liked the smell of androstenone [6]. A clue may be the fact that women can react differently to both androstenol and androstenone on different days of their menstrual cycle [7]. One theory is that the two substances are a signaling system. In one study, female volunteers who w ere ovulating actually rated the smell of androstenone as more pleasant, compare d to other days of their cycle. There seems to be a change in the emotional eval uation of males, triggered by the reaction to androstenone [8]. Further complicating the issue is the fact that the sexy androstenol will quickl y oxidize to produce smelly androstenone [9]. Fortunately, the role of other human pheromones is somewhat clearer. For instanc e, vaginal secretions, known as copulins, have been shown to increase male testo sterone levels; in fact, the copulins produced during ovulation can boost male t estosterone by 150 per cent. Copulins may have evolved to make a females attracti veness less important for males [10]. Still a new science There is still much to learn about the role of pheromones and odor in human beh avior and sexuality. Why, when we have such a detailed knowledge about other are as, is this particular field still lagging? One answer is that there has been something of a stigma attached to sex research. In fact, some researchers claim that despite its prevalence in modern advertisin g, sex is still a dirty word when it comes to research. Policy makers or funding groups may shy away from supporting research that deals with sexual subject mat ter, for fear of being seen as supporting promiscuity or nontraditional sexual b ehaviors. [11] But, perhaps the real answer lies in the complexity of the human animal and the difficulty in measuring our behavior. It isnt as simple or easy to measure human behavior as it might be to measure the actions or reactions of a moth or rodent. It should come as no surprise, however, that scientists are catching up. And wit h an increasing number of researchers working to unravel the mysteries of human odor and pheromones, perhaps one day soon well know just what our bodies are tryi ng to say. ### References 1. Monti-Bloch L, Grosser BI. Effect of putative pheromones on the electrical ac tivity of the human vomeronasal organ and olfactory epithelium. J Steroid Bioche m Mol Biol 1991; 39:573-82. 2. Stern K, McClintock MK. Regulation of ovulation by human pheromones. Nature 1 998; 392:177-9.

3. Preti G, Wysocki CJ, Barnhart K, Sonheimer SJ, Leyden JJ. Male axillary extra cts effect lutenizing hormone (LH) pulsing in female recipients. Poster presenta tion at the 23rd Association for Chemoreception Sciences Annual Meeting; 2001. 4. Cowley JJ, Brooksbank BWL. Human exposure to putative pheromones and changes in aspects of social behavior. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 1991; 39:647-59. 5. Kirk-Smith M, Booth DA, Carroll D, Davies P. Human social attitudes affected by androstenol. Res Comm Psychol Psychiat Behav 1978; 3:379-84. 6. a. Filsinger EE, Braun JJ, Monte WC, Linder DE. Human (Homo sapiens) response s to the pig (Sus scrofa) sex pheromone 5 alpha-androst-16-en-3-one. J Comp Psyc hol 1984; 98:219-22. b. Filsinger EE, Braun JJ, Monte WC. Sex differences in response to the odor of alpha androstenone. Percept Mot Skills 1990; 70:216-8. 7. Maiworm RE. Influence of androstenone, androstenol, menstrual cycle, and oral contraceptives on the attractivity ratings of female probands. Paper presented at the Ninth Congress of ECRO; 1990. 8. Grammer K. 5 alpha-androst-16-en-3-one: A Male Pheromone? A Brief Report. Eth ol Sociobiol 1993; 14:201-8. 9. Labows JN, Preti G, Hoelzle E, Leyden E, Kligman A. Steroid analysis of human apocrine secretion. Steroids 1979; 34:249-58. 10. Jutte A. Female Attractiveness and Copulins. In (Eds.) M. Taborsky & B. Tabo rsky. Advances in Ethology 32, Supplements to Ethology. Contributions to the XXV International Ethological Conference, Vienna, Austria, 20-27 August, 1997. p.49 . 11. Sankaran N. SEX: Still A Bad Word For Some People. The Scientist 1994; 6:1521