Functions that function as pheromones have not yet been clearly identified for humans, even if they are sold as stories. There are candidates and for this reason, science continues to seek ...
Chemicals that secrete the queens of some species, such as bees and ants, prevent the workers of the colony from reproducing.
The pheromones party is one of the most anticipated evenings in cities like Los Angeles, London, Paris ... Women and men are blindly cited to find a partner. The label requires you to choose a shirt with which the guest will sleep for three nights, allowing them to absorb their personal musk. If the entrée to enter is picturesque, more is what comes later. Each one arrives with his garment in a hermetically sealed plastic bag to which a number is assigned. The spectacle starts when the participants begin to smell the bags of the rest until one of them distills the spark necessary to have an intimate vis vis with its owner. Something like a crush on the first odor by work and grace of the supposed pheromones.
The first was prepared by American artist Judith Prays in 2010 at an art gallery in Brooklyn, New York. Since then, she has regularly called singles and singles through her social networks and has exported the idea to other cities. In London, a year ago 140 people gathered at Stories Bar, a fashionable venue now closed. And in Paris we talk to Florian Delifer, organizer of this type of party in Little Big City, to interest us in the next call. At the moment, he says, no date has yet been set. But there will be.
The possibility of human pheromones exist, despite being a recent issue, beats in the laboratories, but if we also add the illusion of an erotic elixir that leads us to the best person, the debate then becomes hot. Are there human sex pheromones? "If there were, the two best candidates would be androstenedione (Y) and the estratetraenol (EST). The first is secreted by the man in the armpits and testicles and would be a component of sweat and semen. The second is produced by women, "says Eduardo Weruaga Prieto, professor of cell biology at the University of Salamanca.
But let's see what happened when a group of scientists from the University of Western Australia replied a few months ago, in laboratory and with a less partyy tone, the evening of the pheromones. The researchers recruited individuals of both sexes with a mean age of 23.7 years. In the first phase participated 24 men and 22 women. The idea was to check whether the exposure to male and female substances mentioned by the professor Salamanca changed in some way their behavior. They received two computer tasks that they had to complete twice, on two consecutive days.
Some scientists criticize the bias of research funded by manufacturers of perfumes whose purpose is to package the pheromones in flasks
The first day was exposed to a scent of control and the second to the pheromone contrary to its gender. A cotton ball impregnated with the corresponding chemical was placed under the nose. Result? Null. Such substances had no effect on the perception of the opposite sex.
The taste and aroma of the body is unique. Human skin produces numerous chemical molecules known as "volatile organic compounds" (VOCs), which vary in each person.
For the second task, the sample was extended to 94 volunteers (43 men and 51 women). The team wanted to find out, this time through visual stimuli, if such substances generated in them some attraction or unfaithful behavior. What happened? Again, nothing. The chemicals had no effect on the participants. They showed no sexual interest in the subjects of the images. Previous studies have shown that, in a fast dating environment, exposure to such substances increased sexual attraction. The Australian group wanted to delve into this and test its influence on some behaviors, such as the perception of attractiveness or appreciation of possible unfaithful behavior.
Attract a trillion males
If they did not alter gender perception or attractiveness, its lead author, biologist Leigh Simmons, believes there is sufficient reason not to label these substances as sex pheromones. "If they were, they would have acted almost subliminally in our brain, pushing us sexually towards one person or another. I'm convinced they do not work, "he says. The authors do not rule out that other chemicals are decisive in amoro game
In the areola of the breast of the lactating mothers have been found glands whose secretion stimulates the suction of the baby. It is possible that there is a human pheromone
In ants, pheromones have an immediate effect. When some of them are disturbed, glands located on their head secrete a very volatile chemical that diffuses rapidly in all directions. This is captured by other ants, who display their alarm reaction and prepare for their defense.
In butterflies, the sex role of pheromones stands out. The male courts the female by rubbing fine hairs on her antennae and transferring a substance with aphrodisiac potential. This makes the female adopt a position suitable for copulation.
Also the trees have developed their own instant messaging system to other congeners and works in a similar way to any human social network. Thanks to the Wood Wide Web - so it has been baptized -, if a tree is attacked by insects, pheromone chemicals are distributed immediately through the fibers present in their roots and also by blowing in the air emitted by the trees. It is their way of warning their fellow men to prepare their defense before an imminent attack.
If in these species the action of pheromones seems indisputable, in the case of mammals the study is much more complex. One of the requirements to be a pheromone is that this behavior must be expressed innately. That is, there is no previous animal experience or learning. And it is very difficult to determine if an answer is innate or learned.
Even so, several have already been found. Goats, for example, have on the skin of their heads pheromones that stimulate females.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo identified in 2014 the exact component of an ingredient with a certain citrus aroma that connects directly with the goats' brain and ignites their reproductive desire. Scientists used custom caps to collect the animal's volatile compounds for a week in fertile and castrated males. They were analyzed chemically and found with a chemical unknown until then in the natural environment, the 4 ethyloctanal. Using an electrophysiological method, they monitored the brains of the female goats in real time and observed their effects. Japanese scientists are studying whether such a finding could be extended to other types of livestock and to humans.
The Sociosexual Brain
Also in the female mice is identified the pheromone that determines their maternal behavior and, from there, Martínez-García has created a model that will allow to study the cerebral mechanisms that trigger the aggressiveness. "Females that are mothers develop an aggressive behavior against male mice, something that is not detected in virgin females. She attacks when she is a mother and has some young to defend. Therefore, in front of the male is as combative as he or more. " As his laboratory discovered, the same pheromone that attracts a virgin female, induces aggression in a mother. Their attitude is determined by the so-called sociosexual brain, a primitive area of the brain responsible for instinctive behaviors.
Any of these human studies would be even more complicated. "It is very difficult to control previous experience, both sexual and exposure to other people's body odors. There is no pheromonal effect, but a simple olfactory learning. We associate the body odor of our partners with sexual intercourse, "explains Enrique Lanuza, professor of Cell Biology at the University of Valencia.
His colleague Martinez-Garcia closely follows the advances of the French researcher Benoist Schaal, from the Center of the Sciences of the Taste in Dijon, discoverer of the first pheromone in a mammal that really fulfilled the requirements for such consideration. This is the 2-methylbut-2-enal of rabbits. This breast pheromone allows the offspring, blind until the ninth day of birth, to orient themselves to the mother's nipple in less than six seconds. After this finding, Schaal is trying to identify a mammary pheromone in the areola of the human female breast. There he has found that the Montgomery glands emit sebaceous secretion during lactation.
To test the effect, she placed a clean glass rod under her nose while she slept. The child continued to sleep without any interest. Then he took a sample of the secretion of these glands from a nursing mother and placed it back under the baby's nose. Now he did. He opened his mouth and began to suck. "It is possible that there exists a human pheromone," says Martinez-Garcia. Although it is difficult to isolate it among so many molecules, its finding could be a transcendent fact to facilitate the breastfeeding of premature babies and increase their chances of survival.
Humans lose the vomeronasal organ, which detects pheromones, during embryonic development. A difference with other mammals
Of all this, Raúl G. Paredes, director of the Institute of Neurobiology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, draws a conclusion: "Although it has been possible to isolate the chemical formula of several pheromones in other species, in humans not yet. In many species they are essential for communication and reproduction, but not for the human, where verbal communication and other types of stimuli, visual and auditory, are more important. Evolutionarily, many species depend on olfaction to adapt and survive in the environment in which they are. In the human it is probable that at the beginning of its evolution the smell was fundamental to interact with its environment. As we evolved, we stopped depending on this sense to adapt, "he explains.
In fact, Weruaga Prieto recalls that the vomeronasal organ, the fundamental channel for recognizing these signals, does not even exist in humans. "It appears during gestation, but remains as a vestigial organ in approximately 10% of the population and without any utility." This is a relevant difference from other mammalian species.
Unique and non-transferable
Despite this and how difficult it is to do experiments with pheromones in our species, scientists say that we have to look for more, because there can be a lot to find. They claim more bioassays unrelated to commercial interests so they do not sell us as sex pheromones substances like androstenone. "In pigs does have that effect, but in the human has not been confirmed," warns Paredes.
The scientist mentions the pigs to alert of one of the last patrañas with scientific packaging: the perfumes of pheromones. Tristram Wyatt, a zoologist at the University of Oxford, explains: "Pheromone, like everything that evokes sex, is a powerful concept. That is why at his side are a thousand products that try to cajole us with the idea of making us more irresistible. It is a very attractive idea, and the molecules they mention sound very scientific. They have many syllables. They are things like androstenol or androstenone. And they sound better when combined with white lab coats. Sadly, they are fraudulent claims supported by unreliable science, "he denounced in his lecture The Smellful Mystery of Human Pheromone.
"A few drops on the skin and you become irresistible. Totally false, "says Australian biologist Leigh Simmons after demonstrating the fallacy of what were believed to be sex pheromones.
Nor would they serve if they were taken from another animal, for example, from the pig. Especially since, as G. Paredes explains, pheromones are species specific. "Yes there are natural odors or other animals that can be pleasing to the nose and contribute to a relaxed and romantic atmosphere. Although in tastes genres are broken, it may be more conducive to a romantic dinner an atmosphere with pleasant smells. In any case, it is good to remember the phrase of Blas Pascal: there are reasons of the heart that reason can not understand.