I was watching this documentary on the works of Michael Persinger. He’s a neuroscientist. His research involves stimulating the brain with usage of magnets. Patients wear this helmet and he can stimulate different parts of the brain, and actually replicate drug induced states without drugs.
Such as stimulate the frontal lobe for marijuana. This has me thinking about pheromones, and what areas of the brain they might stimulate. It would be interesting to see what parts and see if they could be recreated using the magnet stimulation helmet.
Very interesting question, as I discovered (through using it) that TAF is VERY powerful and seems to act on some part of the brain. Positive results with many users, negative results with some others.
As far as I’m concerned, I don’t use TAF anymore. First as I’m a new father, second because I had loss of memory which was really uncomfortable and amazingly surprising. TAF is really to be used with caution and is, to me, the most obvious molecule which acts on some part of the brain.
What an interesting question. First off I’m no scientist, I barely have a GED,lol. I am clever, & I do grasp things fairly well. So let me give you my theory. Fragrance directly affects the limbac center of the brain. Which is also known as ‘the seat of emotions’. So if we take that theory one step further. It would make sense that pheromones probably directly affect the limbac system of the brain first, i.e. love @ first ‘site’ LOL. Just a thought as I have received some powerful emotional response from phero usage.
Marijuana can exihibit memory loss. Mostly affecting the short term, perhaps there’s a possibility TAF might also work the frontal lobe in some way? Fascinating.
Very interesting theorem, and a very good possibility.
Neuroinfluence meets Neurobiology, I like where this is going.
As I understand this, the science is unsettled. Here are a couple of paragraphs from today’s Wikipedia – it may read differently next week:
The way this is worded, it appears that normal smells go directly to the cortex, but pheromones are processed through the limbic system (amygdala and hypothalamus). My own experience tells me that some pheromones have a primarily cognitive effect and are, therefore, most likely processed, in part, through the main olfactory bulb directly to the cortex, but that’s just my own conjecture.
“This has me thinking about pheromones, and what areas of the brain they might stimulate”
I think the reason you get confused is because you have oversimplified brain function & phero’s to the Nth degree…
Phero effects are not as simple as if they stimulate area A you get effect B. There’s a multitude of other variables , some which you can measure, others which you can’t. A few examples;
Areas of the brain don’t work in isolation; there are numerous nuclei (smaller functional areas) within specific areas of the brain, & these all have different functions. The Hypothalamus for example contains at least 16 nuclei with distinct functions so if you say a phero works on the hypothalamus you really aren’t saying anything specific.
*Areas of the brain don’t work in isolation II; There are countless numbers of pathways between different brain areas & subareas. These pathways can also have more than one type of neurons & many of them have connections with several brain areas.
*There are also different nerve cells within the different areas of the brain, as well as within discreet sub-areas. The cortex for example has 6 layers, each having different neurons that project to different areas & connect one or many pathways of the brain, so “stimulating the cortex” will give a huge variety of effects depending on which subarea (nucleus) of the cortex, as well as which cortical layer in that nucleus that is stimulated.
*Different phero’s trigger different neurotransmitters that in turn stimulate different receptor types. So say phero X stimulates neurotransmitter Y… The resulting “phero effect” will not only depend on what Y is & what general effects it has (inhibition or excitation of neurons) but also where in the brain Y’s receptors are, & if those receptors exist in several areas of the brain. If Y stimulate neurons in one area it may cause inhibition of neurons in another. Y can also stimulate several areas causing multiple effects. X, (the phero) may also trigger the release of more than one type of neurotransmitter…
*Many phero’s are bi-or tri-modal, ie they exert different effects at different concentrations. Take allopregnanolone for example… At one concentration it’s stimulating to the GABA-A receptor, at a different concentration its effects are the opposite.
With these examples I’ve really only scratched the surface…So…it’s really not as simple as phero’s stimulate the cortex or they stimulate the hypothalamus…
