| Title: | Repetitive olfactory exposure to the biologically significant steroid androstadienone causes a hedonic shift and gender dimorphic changes in olfactory-evoked potentials |
| Author(s): | Boulkroune N; Wang L; March A; Walker N; Jacob TJ; |
| Address: | "School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0893-133X (Print) 0893-133X (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The function of a sensory system is to transduce and relay sensory information in a constant and reproducible manner. However, in the olfactory processing of certain steroids this precept of sensory constancy does not appear to apply. Using threshold testing, psychometrics, and electrophysiological techniques, we investigated the effects of a repetitive exposure protocol on the response to androstadienone. Androstadienone is a steroid found in human secretions that has been widely proposed as a candidate for a human pheromone. The detection threshold, hedonic perception, and evoked potential response all changed following repetitive exposure to androstadienone and not to a control odorant, benzaldehyde. Furthermore, the exposure-dependent changes in evoked potentials exhibited a gender dimorphism in which there were changes in the later components of the evoked potentials specific to women. These components have been associated with cognitive and perceptual operations. This 'learning' to smell a compound found in sweat may be related to biological signaling" |
| Keywords: | Adult Analysis of Variance Androstadienes/*pharmacology Electroencephalography Evoked Potentials/*drug effects Female Humans Male *Odorants Olfactory Pathways/drug effects/physiology Psychometrics Sensory Thresholds/*drug effects/physiology *Sex Character; |
| Notes: | "MedlineBoulkroune, Nassima Wang, Liwei March, Amy Walker, Natalie Jacob, Tim J C eng Clinical Trial England 2007/01/26 Neuropsychopharmacology. 2007 Aug; 32(8):1822-9. doi: 10.1038/sj.npp.1301303. Epub 2007 Jan 24" |
