Love Stinks: Intraspecies Chemical Communication
Department stores around the country are currently selling fragrances for men and women that supposedly contain pheromones, the mysterious chemicals responsible for intraspecies subliminal communication(1). These fragrances ideally make people more attractive to the opposite sex, but whether or not they actually work is disputed. An informal study done by ABCNEWS suggests that pheromone additives in perfumes do work (2) , but their method was not a rigorous scientific investigation. Rather, they informally observed twin women at a bar. One twin wore the pheromone scent, while the other wore a placebo. Much to the delight of pheromone marketers, the twin wearing the pheromone was approached more often by men than her sister. While investigations such as these may convince a consumer that pheromones added to fragrances are a worthwhile investment, nothing has been revealed about human pheromone perception. Do humans really have pheromones? How are pheromones detected? What exactly is a pheromone, anyway? Are pheromones related to olfaction? Do pheromones actually affect the way that people and other animals behave? To answer these questions, and many more, rigorous scientific study is required.
Pheromones are chemicals employed in intraspecies communication. Pheromones may be proteins, steroids, or any other chemical released by the body. The vomernasal organ (VNO) houses the chemoreceptors involved in detecting pheromones (3). The sensory system that perceives pheromones is similar in many ways to the olfactory system, particularly in that both systems transduce chemicals. Additionally, smell can be "emotionally potent" in humans (4) , and possibly other animals, just as pheromone detection could affect animals' emotional states, at least according to popular culture (5) .
In mammals, the VNO is an elongated tube lined with chemoreceptor cells that extends from the nasal palatine canal (3) . The neurons of the VNO are bipolar cells covered in microvilli or cilia (3) . Chemicals that stimulate the VNO are generally non-volatile and dissolve in the mucus of the nasal organ and diffuse into the duct (3) . In some animals, such as the hamster, large blood vessels near the VNO duct act as pumps, sucking the nasal mucus into the duct to increase the likelihood of contact between the chemicals and the neurons of the VNO (3) . Some volatile molecules may be detected if they reach the chemoreceptors of the VNO, but primarily dissolved substances stimulate the VNO neurons (3) . Either small amounts of specific chemicals or high doses of other chemicals may excite the chemoreceptors (3) .
Most pheromone based perfumes marketed on the internet elicit their effect by affecting one or more gland in the body.
They then argue that any of the seven effects might hold the female’s attention longer than if they were absent. From these findings they conclude that they have shown that illusions have an affect on mating success in ways unpredictable from signal intensity alone.
The advertisement entitled “Morning After Pillow” by The AXE Company would like for their customers to believe that love or sex can be easily attained by purchasing a product that smells good. However, experience should indicate that there are many factors that attribute to these rewards.
Vasopressin has long been implicated in the memory of faces and is thus useful for research on recall and recognition of faces. Because of the role vasopressin plays in relationships, it is important to consider its value in affecting romantic relationships and perception of romantic partner's faces. In a study by Thompson and colleagues (2004) researchers looked at how vasopressin administration affects responses to happy, angry and neutral faces in terms of attention, and arousal and physiological measures like corrugator supercilii electromyograms (EMG), heart rate and skin conductance (Thompson, Gupta, Miller, Mills, & Orr, 2004). This was based on previous experiments with the effect of oxytocin on facial perception. Neutral faces were found to elicit higher responses in the EMG. They argued that because the faces were ambiguous having been taken from Paul Ekman's series of faces, vasopressin may have lead participants to view those neutral faces in a more aggressive way causing that increased EMG response. This study demonstrates that there is a link between vasopressin and facial recognition responses and further studies have added on to this. In a follow up study in 2006, they looked at vasopressin effects on perception of friendliness for both men and women on pictures of same sex faces. They found that the results of vasopressin depended on the gender as women were friendlier when presented with same sex faces (Thompson, George, Walton, Orr, & Benson, 2006). Interestingly, they did not repeat the study to see the effect of vasopressin between both sexes seeing opposite sex pictures. In men, however, the familiarity of the romantic partner when combined with insecurity would decrease the per...
The article '' love: the right chemistry'' by Anastasia Toufexis efforts to explain the concept of love from a scientific aspect in which an amateur will understand. Briefly this essay explains and describe in a scientific way how people's stimulation of the body works when you're falling in love. The new scientific researches have given the answer through human physiology how genes behave when your feelings for example get swept away. The justification for this is explained by how the brain gets flooded by chemicals. The author expresses in one point that love isn't just a nonsense behavior nor a feeling that exhibits similar properties as of a narcotic drug. This is brought about by an organized chemical chain who controls different depending on the individual. A simple action such as a deep look into someone's eyes can start the simulation in the body that an increased production of hand sweat will start. The tingly feeling inside your body is a result of a scientific delineation which makes the concept of love more concretely and more factually mainly for researchers and the wide...
The nose is divided into the right and left cavities and is lined with tiny hairs and mucous membrane, which secretes a sticky fluid, called mucus, which helps prevent dust and bacteria from entering the lungs. The nose moistens, warms and filters the air and is an organ, which senses smell. The naso-pharynx is the upper part of the nasal cavity behind the nose, and is lined with mucous membrane. The naso-pharynx continues to filter, warm and moisten the incoming air.
Pheromones are natural scents, which play an important role in sexual communication. Animals and humans release masses of biological chemicals in tears, saliva and perspiration. These aromas convey signals relating to mood, status, drive and health to the subconscious awareness of the female. The dominant male will exude more of these biological attractants than his submissive counterpart, consequently he inevitably attracts more females and enjoys more conquests. This philosophy holds well in the animal world, pheromones are consciously detected over considerable distances and serve at times in place of spoken communication. They help animals mark territory, recognize mates, and signal sexual interest. For example, female dogs in heat leave their pheromone and can attract male dogs over a mile away (5).
In Lynda Barry’s Common Scents, she considers scents a demon for many reasons. One reason being that everyone has his or her own scent preference and scent in general, yet we also judge the way that other people smell. When the woman whose house smelled like a fresh bus bathroom talking about the smells of different Asian people’s houses, Lynda notes that she was “free with her observations about the smells of others” (18). She sprays her house with disinfectant sprays and air fresheners, which to her smells better that whatever her house smelt like before, but to others, such as Lynda’s grandmother, these smells are too strong and are trying to hide the fact that not everything smells good all the time.
The purpose of this lab was to study the response of the genus Daphnia to chemical stimuli and to examine human responses to different stimuli. A stimulus is an incentive; it is the cause of a physical response. Stimuli can have a physical or chemical change; an example of a physical change is a change in temperature and sound. An example of chemical change would be changes in hormone levels and pH levels. Muscular activity or glandular secretions are responses that occurs when stimulus information effects the nervous and/or hormone system. Daphnia is a genus; it is a small crustacean that lives in fresh water. The body of the daphnia is visible and its internal organs are clearly seen thus it was chosen for this exercise. The
From laundry detergent to perfume, room sprays to breath mints, everything now has a chemically produced scent to disguise the natural; modern culture has declared the embarrassment linked with body odor. On a night out or at a first date, men and women are both spritzing cologne and perfume and popping in chewing gum in an effort to smell pleasant and non-verbally communicate a message to the other. They are attempting to present themselves in a way they believe will appeal to the other and enhance the relationship. However, this very act proves that odors have the capability to affect our mood, perception, and
It may seem obvious to some why people mate, however there are many facets to human mating. Psychology has shown that reasons for mating have gone beyond the scope of love and physical attractiveness. People may search for mates who resemble archetypical images of the opposite-sex parent, mates with characteristics that are either complementary or similar to one's own qualities, or mates with whom to make an exchange of valuable resources (Buss 238). Although these theories play a key role in understanding patterns in human mating preferences, evolutionary psychology and sexual selection theory provide more concrete frameworks for explaining human mating.
The limbic system is associated with emotional behavior, long-term memory, and olfaction. Your sense of smell is the first and most primitive sense you use when you are born. It helps newborns to recognize their parents. Our sense of smell is intertwined with our memories formed in our brain.
However the 24 girls whom he extracts scents to create his perfume are described to be “virginal” alluding to their chastity, which also suggests their purity. The women have a distinguishable physical beauty that Grenouille accounts to their equally beautiful scent. The notion of the girls scent as pure also draws connection with the concept of the soul. The essence of these women who are innocent and uncorrupted is in contrast with society which stinks from their vial venality. Ultimately Suskind suggests that the qualities of a scent possess the possibility of spiritual transcendence into a physical manifestation of the
Both the arts and the sciences have completely different methods to create knowledge, thus the effects ethical judgments have on the arts and the science are different. Ethics limits the production of knowledge in both the arts and natural sciences, however, in the arts ethical judgments do not limit the methods available in the production of knowledge, rather it limits the propagation of knowledge. On the other hand, ethical judgements do limit the methods available in the production of knowledge in the natural sciences, because ethical judgments are self regulated in the natural sciences by reason because of the role of ethics in the methods.
It’s no secret that fragrance matters to us. It is a huge part of how we experience the products we use and the world at large. For this reason, it’s a deal breaker when it comes to our beauty and personal care products, especially if it’s a product that you leave on the hair and skin or a fragrance that lingers. Many of us have given up products that worked well because we could not stand the smell or because our significant other complained. The fact that fragrance affects not just us but those around us is something we often tend to overlook. Fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City once said this about fragrance "It 's immediately communicating more than your clothes, which we think tell our story, right? But clothes don 't invade anybody else 's space.” That’s so true. You can look away if a coworker is wearing something you don’t like, but you can’t hold your breath all day, now can you? Fragrance can even linger in a space long after the wearer has gone or linger on your close, long after you hugged your best friend. Fragrance has such a