| Title: | Pheromone effects on the human hypothalamus in relation to sexual orientation and gender |
| Address: | "State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China. State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address: zhouw@psych.ac.cn" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/B978-0-12-819973-2.00021-6 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0072-9752 (Print) 0072-9752 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Pheromones are chemicals that serve communicational purposes within a species. In most terrestrial mammals, pheromones are detected by either the olfactory epithelium or the vomeronasal organ and processed by various downstream structures including the medial amygdala and the hypothalamus to regulate motivated behaviors and endocrine responses. The search for human pheromones began in the 1970s. Whereas bioactive ligands are yet to be identified, there has been accumulating evidence that human body odors exert a range of pheromone-like effects on the recipients, including triggering innate behavioral responses, modulating endocrine levels, signaling social information, and affecting mood and cognition. In parallel, results from recent brain imaging studies suggest that body odors evoke distinct neural responses from those observed with common nonsocial odors. Two endogenous steroids androsta-4,16,- dien-3-one and estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol are considered by some as candidates for human sex pheromones. The two substances produce sexually dimorphic effects on human perception, mood, and physiological arousal. Moreover, they reportedly elicit different hypothalamic response patterns in manners contingent on the recipients' sex and sexual orientation. Neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying the effects of human chemosignals are not yet clear and await future detailed analyses" |
| Keywords: | Animals Female Humans Hypothalamus Male *Pheromones *Sex Attractants Sexual Behavior Smell Androstadienone Estratetraenol Pheromone Sex Sexual orientation; |
| Notes: | "MedlineYe, Yuting Lu, Zhonghua Zhou, Wen eng Review Netherlands 2021/07/17 Handb Clin Neurol. 2021; 182:293-306. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-819973-2.00021-6" |
