This Progress Report for Phase O of this project reported on four different tasks. Task I, Optimization of Sample Collection, focused on the collection of the putative alarm pheromone via axillary sweat samples obtained during reference (physical exercise) and arousal (skydive) conditions. The researchers chose cotton gauze sponges and developed their own method of sterilizing them and attaching them to the body so that neither contamination nor evaporation could occur. Task II, Development of the Extraction Protocol, focused on a method to extract the target substances from the sweat pads into progressively more hydrophobic solvents (water to primary extraction solvent to secondary extraction solvent) while concentrating them. Ethanol was selected as a primary extraction solvent and a secondary extraction procedure was developed that relies on solvent partitioning. Task III focused on the Preliminary Identification of Steroids of Interest in Human Fear Sweat Using the Skydiving Protocol. The authors collected sweat, urine, blood, saliva, ECG, respiration, and self-report measures in 20 subjects (n=11 males and n=9 females) before, during, and immediately following their first-time tandem skydive, as well as before, during, and immediately following their running on a treadmill for the same period of time. Measurements between the test (skydive) and control (exercise) conditions were made on consecutive days, each experiment precisely matched to the minute between subjects and between conditions to prevent diurnal confounds. Emotional states were monitored using brief standardized questionnaires. For most of the observed compounds, men showed an increase in the compound emission during acute emotional stress, while women showed either no change or a decrease in emission of the compound. Task IV, Olfactometry, sought to determine whether the putative alarm pheromones trigger arousal in other humans using neural (MRI) and autonomic measurements.
Interesting.
My intuition tells me that the exhilaration/fear produced from an activity like skydiving is quite different from the fear one might experience being attacked by a pack of large dogs. I suspect that there are different chemical signatures for both types of fear. (and perhaps many others.) The stress/fear of a Hitchcock film might be yet another type of distinguishable pheormone signature.
However when one is sleeping one can feel fear of let’s say a wild bear, and this will feel the same as when you are faced with it in waking life.. at least these two are probably the same. The difference with the film is you know it isn’t real, you are aware of this, so is it a different signature because of that?
Perhaps but that is not what I was thinking of. I chose a Hitchock film in my example because of the diffuse anxiety he tries to build. I was thinking of situations where you know something is wrong and you’re aroused and anxious but do not know what the appropriate response is.
“This work piggybacks on a 2002 study by the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute for Urban Ethology at the University of Vienna.”
Two of the three co-authors of the study mentioned in the article that Phoenix linked to (also above): Michaela Atzmueller & Karl Grammer were co-authors of the award-winning study Kohl et al (2001). Both articles are available at the links provided below.
http://www.nel.edu/pdf_w/23_2/NEL230…Grammer_rw.pdf
NEL, Human Pheromones: “Integrating Neuroendocrinology and Ethology”
Maybe it’s time for me to apply for some Department of Defense funding, and make everything I find “classified”. On the other hand, maybe it already is classified.
James V. Kohl
The Scent of Eros
But is the presence of such chemicals in the sweat, skin, etc. of a fearfully aroused person the cause of this arousal, or merely the effect? I’ll eep perusing the research section here.