When two people get knocked off their feet by physical chemistry, their friends may offer this standard glib explanation: “It’s all about the pheromones.” But in fact, 50 years after the term “pheromones” was coined by biologists to refer to the chemical messages passed within many insect and mammal species, researchers still haven’t found proof that humans emit or detect such chemicals. In an essay in Nature [subscription required] marking the 50-year milestone, zoologist Tristram Wyatt sums up the state of the research, and reminds the gullible not to buy any love potions that boast of their pheromone content.
The first studies took place in 1959, when German researchers discovered a chemical called bombykol that’s secreted by female silk moths and that immediately sends males into a mating frenzy. Following that Nobel Prize-winning work, biologists proceeded to find pheromones “across the animal kingdom, sending messages between courting lobsters, alarmed aphids, suckling rabbit pups, mound-building termites and trail-following ants. They are also used by algae, yeast, ciliates and bacteria” [Wired News], Wyatt writes. Pheromones have been found to play a part not just in mating rituals, but also battles for dominance, warnings about approaching danger, and cooperative behavior.
Despite 50 years of searching researchers have found no definitive proof that human pheromones exist, but some of the studies have been quite suggestive. In Martha McClintock’s famous study, she found that dabs of sweat from a menstruating woman caused other women’s menstrual cycles to fall into sync. McClintock couldn’t find a chemical to explain the phenomenon, but Wyatt says that researchers are still hunting. “[T]his one I think is the most likely – and this could have a really good practical application…. If you could genuinely interfere with female hormones in this way and affect the menstrual cycle you could end up with an effective, sniffable contraceptive” [BBC News], says Wyatt.
In another study, researchers tested the brain responses of volunteers who smelled the sweat of either someone preparing to skydive for the first time, or someone under no stress. The skydivers’ sweat did indeed produce the signals in the parts of the volunteers’ brains associated with fear, although it is unclear whether they did in fact feel scared [BBC News]. Although such evidence seems compelling, researchers still haven’t been able to determine whether chemical compounds are producing the effect. “We produce a large number of compounds, and bacteria ferment our secretions,” said Wyatt. “You’re trying to find a few active compounds from a forest of thousands of compounds” — and to top it off, they might only work in particular combinations, making their isolation even harder [Wired News].
Some research has suggested that pheromones are simply a communication system that was discarded somewhere along the evolutionary line that led to humans. Recent research showed that at about the same time our primate ancestors gained color vision, they also lost the genes for so-called vomeronasal organ (VNO) receptors, Wyatt said. Non-human animals use the organ to detect pheromones. (Turns out, mice use both their VNO and main smelling system to detect pheromones, so maybe humans don’t need that specialized organ.) “It may be at that point that we moved from running things mostly by pheromones to doing things much more in the visual fashion,” Wyatt said [LiveScience].
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Image: flickr / emmma peel
January 16th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Human pheromone perception cells, the microvillar ‘brush border’ cells, line almost the entire upper respiratory system. Humans have more, larger, and more active scent glands than any other animal species. Human beings have 36 types of sebaceous glands alone.
Criminal behavior can be alleviated by 150 mg of adult male (father age) facial skin surface lipid provided p.o. on a chewing gum vehicle. A piece of new fresh gum holds 10 mg of sebum when it has been rubbed on the man’s face.
Drug-seeking behavior can also be alleviated by 150 mg of adult male (father age) facial skin surface lipid provided p.o. on a chewing gum vehicle.
Unwanted side effects include: alteration of homosexual to heterosexual orientation, and jealousy in the recipient’s osculation partner. Apparently, intuition is a chemosense.
We are waiting for certain elderly gentlemen editors to die or resign in order to see these articles published.
January 16th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Nicholson
You are 74 days early.
January 17th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Anybody can cure a criminal or even the worst drug addict you’ve ever seen with face grease, just like I said. Test it yourself, don’t be a coward, all you have to lose is your face grease. No foolin’.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I believe in pheromones. Whether perception, chemical, psychological… something happens when i put them on. I ordered a sample while after seeing an ad on TV last month – http://www.pheromonefacts.com . I just received them last week. Are women interested in me because of because the pheromones make me feel confident? I don’t know – but for the first time ever, i feel very popular. And that feels good!
While I haven’t had any unusual sexual encounters, i have noticed that women in my office seem to always want to talk to me. They seem to listen on every word I say. Are woman are more interested in me because of i have pheromones?