“There is some evidence published showing this chemical can modify the mood or hormone levels in humans,” he said. “What we don’t know is whether the receptor we found was in any way involved in this process.”
I don’t know about any published evidence showing that this chemical can modify hormone levels in humans, or about any published evidence showing a positive effect on mood (just a less negative impact on the mood of women who are ovulating.) But maybe I missed something.
Could they be talking about anecdotal evidence (even though it doesn’t appear that way)?
Anecdotal evidence gathered in the pheromone forums suggest that Androstenone definitely does something. Most users now unanimously believe that it signals aggression and dominance.
Now I believe if we were to ask women how they would perceive a man who was being aggressive towards them and trying to dominate them, most of them would probably respond as the feeling ranging from very negative to maybe neutral (depending on the type of women and probably also their stage in the ovulation cycles). It has been documented how aggression in males correlates to higher mating access in primates (from what I recall from reading Buss’ Evolution of Desire).
Maybe being exposed to androstenone is similar to being exposed to an aggressive man. The demonstration that androstenone evokes those negative to neutral emotions is by the above reasoning kind of expected. What do you think?
“Recent expression analysis shows that OR7D4 is selectively expressed in human nasal epithelium.” Citation: Zhang, X. et al. Characterizing the expression of the human olfactory receptor gene family using a novel DNA microarray. Genome Biol. 8, R86 (2007).
Once again, there appears to be no support for the concept that human pheromones act through what appears to be a non-existent human VNO.
I ain’t the doc, but “nasal epithelium” means “nose skin” meaning the skin that lines the inside of the nose. Then of course, there is always “Cranial Nerve 0”, but that’s a different discussion.
It certainly helped me. Thanks for explaining it in words that more people can understand. Did you read the article on Cranial Nerve Zero that I was interviewed for? It’s not necessarily a different discussion; more like one that’s hovering on the sidelines, along with TAAR’s --all of which make debate over a human VNO a waste of time–as does the most recent article on the androstenone (and androstadienone) receptor. But according to some, not currently present on this Forum, my debate style reflects only my ego–not my knowledge base.
Funniest story ever from the link posted by JVKohl
“We got an email from a woman who told us a story that she has a female pet pig and that one day the pig was in heat and it disappeared. And she went searching for it and found it among a group of sweaty construction workers at a nearby house and she told us that she thinks it’s the androstenone odor of these men that attracted her pig.”
Some might consider this tragedy. Anyone who wants to keep their “pig” at home, may need to learn more about species-specific pheromones to avoid potential losses.
An excerpt from JVKohl’s book: Scent of Eros
It mentions the experiment done at U. of Manchester in UK with men who sniffed Androstenone rating women much higher on the attractiveness scale. So there seems to be some study on androstenone’s effect on mood, but alas not when sniffed by women.
