HUMAN PHEROMONES: TYPES AND EFFECTS - NEUROPSYCHOLOGY - 2024

Human pheromones are chemical substances produced by the body as a means of communicating with organisms of the same species, whose existence has been demonstrated in animals but not entirely in the human species.

The word "pheromone" comes from the Greek word "pherein", which means to carry or bear. This makes sense, since pheromones carry information with them. These substances have sometimes been described as behavioral altering agents.

Vomeronasal organ

Many people do not know that pheromones trigger certain behaviors in other members of the same species, not just in the person who produces them, unlike hormones, which normally only affect the individual who secretes them.

These substances can be secreted to cause many types of behaviors, such as bonding between a mother and her baby and sexual arousal.

The first animal pheromone is believed to have been identified in 1953 and named Bombykol. This pheromone is secreted by female moths to attract males. The signal from this pheromone can travel long distances, even at very low concentrations.

Humans and other animals have an olfactory system designed to detect and discriminate between thousands of chemical compounds. There is a belief that pheromones are secreted by axillary glands called "apocrine glands", which create a nutritional environment for bacteria.

There are differences between men and women in the type of glands, secretions and even the microbial flora, which suggests that pheromones have a gender-specific role. These compounds can also be found in salivary, seminal and urinal secretions, but studies tend to focus on the most accessible: armpit sweat.

Types of pheromones

There are two main types of pheromones: releasing and priming. Some scientists have proposed a third and fourth group of pheromones: signaling and modulating.

Releasing pheromones

Pheromone traps for Chilo suppressalis. Source: Mehdi

They provoke an immediate response and are usually linked to sexual attraction. Ants produce these types of hormones to notify other ants and communicate that they have found food.

In this way, the ants in the group know when to return to the nest to eat. When the food runs out, the ants produce a different pheromone that lets the others in the group know that they need to search for more.

Primer pheromones

Pheromone diffuser. Source: Epop

These types of pheromones take longer to get a response. They can, for example, influence the development of reproductive physiology, including menstrual cycles in women, puberty, and whether or not they are successful in becoming pregnant.

They can also alter hormone levels; In some mammals, it has been seen that females that had become pregnant and were exposed to this type of pheromones from another male could spontaneously abort the fetus.

Signaling hormones

Source:

They provide information. They can help the mother to recognize her newborn by smell (parents cannot do this).

Modulators

Modulating pheromones are found in sweat particles Source:

They can alter or synchronize bodily functions and are normally found in sweat. This is the type of pheromone that disrupts female menstrual cycles.

Do humans have pheromones?

According to many websites that promise that you will achieve all the love conquests that you propose if you buy their pills, human pheromones exist.

However, there are many more controlled scientific studies that have failed to gather convincing evidence about the existence of these substances in humans or have reached different conclusions about it.

Gustav Jäger (1832-1917), a German doctor, was the first scientist to introduce the idea of ​​human pheromones and called them anthropines. He stated that they were compounds associated with the skin and follicles that marked the individual signature of the odors of each human individual.

Effects on animals

Some of the effects of pheromones proven in animals have been seen very clearly in humans as well. Although the exact conclusions of many of the investigations differ from each other, most have found that human sweat increases physiological activation, in one way or another.

Animals have a special organ for identifying very subtle odors from other animals: the vomeronasal organ, located in the nasal area. However, this organ, present in the first primates, was disappearing in humans as other more advanced methods of choosing sexual partners were developed and it remained as a vestige. This is one of the reasons why there is a controversy about whether humans possess pheromones or not.

To administer pheromones and study the effects, most studies choose passive inhalation over topical application. They usually ask subjects to smell or place the sample on top of their upper lip.

Effects of pheromones in humans

Next, we will talk about the results of some research studying the effects of pheromones in humans.

Synchronization of the female menstrual cycle

This is one of the best known results of the action of pheromones, although most people do not know that it is due to them. Some researchers at the University of Chicago claimed that they had managed to synchronize the menstrual cycles of a group of women by following unconscious odor signals.

When the group of women were exposed to the smell of other women's sweat, their menstrual cycles either sped up or slowed down, depending on where the menstrual cycle of the women from whom the sweat had been removed was going: before or after ovulation. However, more recent analyzes of this study and the methodology with which it was carried out question its validity.

Male pheromones also affect the female menstrual cycle, speeding it up and increasing fertility. Cutler and Preti (1986), from the Monell Center for Chemical Sensations in Philadelphia, say that their research shows how important the presence of the "essence" of men (now called "pheromones") is for the biology of woman.

They found that having sex on a regular basis decreases fertility problems in women, regulates menstrual cycles, and correlates with smoother menopause.

Effects on mood

The effects of pheromones on mood are not very conclusive either. This is at least partially because mood has a greater subjective component than, for example, physiological activation or levels of certain hormones in the blood, which makes it more difficult to measure and identify.

Chen (2000), for example, found that moods could be communicated through chemical compounds found in armpit sweat. Men's and women's sweat was collected while watching a funny or scary video, to be recognized later.

The women successfully differentiated the bottles with sweat from the people who had seen the funny video from those who had seen the horror video. Men were able to make the distinction significantly correctly (but only from the "happy" pheromones) only when the sweat came from women. Scared pheromones were well identified by both men and women only when they came from men's sweat.

Jacob (2000, 2001) found that physiological arousal was increased, but only saw a positive increase in mood and increased arousal in women when the test administrator was a man.

Men were not affected by the examiner's sex, but generally fewer effects were seen for them than for women. In this study it was concluded that pheromones are incredibly context dependent. Humans must integrate many different brain functions to influence mood.

A direct correlation between axillary compounds and serotonin has also been found (Marazziti et al, 2010). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter related to well-being, positive feelings, and happiness. It also maintains balance in mood, and a deficiency in this neurotransmitter is known to cause depression.

Sexual compatibility

Cutler (1998, 2002) found that some synthesized pheromones, applied topically (on the skin), increase a person's sexual attraction. In another study, men who carried the synthesized pheromones reported that they had more sexual activity with their partners, but had not noticed an increase in autoerotic behaviors.

The existence of chemical substances that communicate information about the immune systems of each individual has been demonstrated, but they are not always considered pheromones, because they do not cause a specific reaction in members of the same species.

Sexual orientation

Human pheromones are specific to each sex and each sexual orientation. In all previously described studies, subjects were identified as heterosexual. Gay men respond to some pheromones in the same way as heterosexual women.

Martins et al (2005) tested the preferences between different types of sweat from heterosexual and homosexual men and heterosexual and homosexual women.

The results were quite significant: heterosexual men did not significantly prefer heterosexual or homosexual women, unlike women, who preferred homosexual men.

The rest of the groups preferred heterosexual women over homosexual ones. Gay men chose more times the sweat of heterosexual women than that of heterosexual men.

It's difficult to draw specific conclusions from these sorts of studies so early, but it seems clear that there are significant differences in the way humans react to pheromones based on their sexual orientation.

Other discoveries

Another more recent study conducted at the Weizzmann Institute of Science in Israel offers interesting data on the effects of human pheromones on other individuals, specifically those of the opposite sex.

The researchers collected tear samples from women who had seen a sad scene in a movie and placed them under the noses of a group of men.

You may think that the most logical reaction on the part of men would have been to generate a state of empathy, but what happened was that their sexual arousal and their testosterone levels were diminished. It seems that the tears made them understand that there was no place for romance in that situation.

Human pheromones for sale

Pheromones from insects and some mammals have been on the market for many years to be used as insecticides or baits, but usually people interested in buying human pheromones are looking for something completely different: the opposite sex.

These pheromones, or at least their synthetic equivalents, have been used as ingredients in colognes, deodorants, and perfumes since before the 1980s. The bad news is that, although they are easily accessible, these substances will most likely not get the results you want.

At present, there is insufficient evidence that perfumes containing these ingredients create more interest in the opposite sex than perfumes that do not contain them. The reaction in the opposite sex, if it exists, is very subtle.