and for lesbian women. skip to abstract. I know these are studies but are relevant to this thread so I wanted him to read them where he’d expect to find an answer
Authors:
Berglund, Hans, Department of Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Lindstr?m, Per, Stockholm Brain Institute, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Savic, Ivanka, Stockholm Brain Institute, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, ivanka.savic-berglund@ki.se
Address:
Savic, Ivanka, Stockholm Brain Institute, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Magnetic Resonance Centre, Karolinska Hospital , 171 76, Stockholm, Sweden, ivanka.savic-berglund@ki.se
Source:
PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol 103(21), May, 2006. pp. 8269-8274.
Page Count:
6
Publisher:
US: National Academy of Sciences.
ISSN:
0027-8424 (Print)
Language:
English
Keywords:
brain response, pheromones, lesbian women, hypothalamus, sexual orientation, heterosexual men, estrogens
Abstract:
The progesterone derivative 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND) and the estrogen-like steroid estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol (EST) are candidate compounds for human pheromones. In previous positron emission tomography studies, we found that smelling AND and EST activated regions primarily incorporating the sexually dimorphic nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus, that this activation was differentiated with respect to sex and compound, and that homosexual men processed AND congruently with heterosexual women rather than heterosexual men. These observations indicate involvement of the anterior hypothalamus in physiological processes related to sexual orientation in humans. We expand the information on this issue in the present study by performing identical positron emission tomography experiments on 12 lesbian women. In contrast to heterosexual women, lesbian women processed AND stimuli by the olfactory networks and not the anterior hypothalamus. Furthermore, when smelling EST, they partly shared activation of the anterior hypothalamus with heterosexual men. These data support our previous results about differentiated processing of pheromone-like stimuli in humans and further strengthen the notion of a coupling between hypothalamic neuronal circuits and sexual preferences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Subjects:
*Brain; *Estrogens; *Hypothalamus; *Lesbianism; *Pheromones; Heterosexuality
Classification:
Neuropsychology & Neurology (2520)
Sexual Behavior & Sexual Orientation (2980)
Population:
Human (10)
Female (40)
Age Group:
Adulthood (18 yrs & older) (300)
Tests & Measures:
Kinsey Scale
Grant Sponsorship:
Sponsor: Swedish Medical Research Council; Sweden
Recipients: No recipient indicated
Sponsor: Karolinska Institutet
Recipients: No recipient indicated
Sponsor: Arbetsmarknadens F?rs?kringsaktiebolag
Recipients: No recipient indicated
Sponsor: Wallenberg Foundation
Recipients: No recipient indicated
Methodology:
Empirical Study; Quantitative Study
Format Covered:
Electronic
Publication Type:
Journal; Peer Reviewed Journal
Document Type:
Journal Article
Release Date:
20070430
Digital Object Identifier:
10.1073/pnas.0600331103
Accession Number:
2006-12017-006
Number of Citations in Source:
51
Database:
PsycINFO