Question No.  19389 :
Does pheromones affect human behaviour?

The term pheromone - from the Greek roots of pherin, to transfer, and hormone, to excite - describes a class of chemicals that are communicated between animals of the same species and that elicit stereotyped behavioural or neuroendocrine responses. For many years it has been known by scientists that pheromones exist in most animal species. Pheromones are odourless chemicals that can signal an individual's identity, arousal or sexual receptivity. When emitted they have some effect on members of the same species. For example, pheromones produced by queen bees stall sexual development in other females, who then become workers. Male mice emit pheromones that can promote the sexual development of nearby females. When a pregnant female mouse detects the pheromones of an unfamiliar male, a spontaneous abortion occurs. The first pheromone ever identified (in 1956) was a powerful sex attractant for silkworm moths. A team of German researchers worked 20 years to isolate it. After removing certain glands at the tip of the abdomen of 500,000 female moths, they extracted a curious compound. The smallest amount of it made male moths beat their wings madly in a "flutter dance". This clear sign that the males had sensed the attractant enabled the scientists to purify the pheromone. Step by step, they removed extraneous matter and sharply reduced the amount of attractant needed to provoke the flutter dance. Some scientists believe that higher animals, such as mammals, have individual pheromones or special combinations of these chemicals that signal their identity, enabling babies to recognise parents and vice-versa. In dealing with mammals, however, scientists faced an entirely different problem. Compared to insects, whose behaviour is stereotyped and highly predictable, mammals are independent, ornery, complex creatures. Their behaviour varies greatly, and its meaning is not always clear. In order for pheromones to be detected, a special organ, called the vomeronasal organ (VNO) must be present. Pheromone-induced responses are mediated primarily by the vomeronasal organ. The VNO, also known as "Jacobson's organ", is part of an accessory olfactory system. It is present in a variety of non-human vertebrates but there has been controversy as to whether or not this organ exists in humans. Recently several scientists have identified what they believe to be the human VNO, located near the bottom of the septal wall dividing the nose. This organ is composed of a pair of small pits on the membranous skin inside the nostrils. For further information on "human pheromones" and VNO, please refer to the URLs below: http://zebra.biol.sc.edu/smell/ann/myth10.html http://www.rockefeller.edu/pubinfo/090402.php http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/berman/P1S1.htm http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/pheromones.html http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/3_14_98/fob1.htm http://www.colorado.edu/iec/FALL297RW/Pheromones.html http://www.cf.ac.uk/biosi/staff/jacob/teaching/sensory/pherom.html http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/98/980311.McClintock.shtml http://evolution.anthro.univie.ac.at/institutes/urbanethology/pheropro.html http://www.macalester.edu/~psych/whathap/UBNRP/Smell/attraction.html Question Asked By:

Name: toh

Age Group: 21 to 30

Occupation Type: Student

Education Level: A Level's