Odors and classically conditioned behavior

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2015 — Is there such a thing as love at first smell? There are hundreds of spray-on pheromone products that claim to put you on the fast track to romance. While pheromones are a prevalent form of chemical communication across the animal kingdom, can they really help humans land a mate? Reactions has the answers in this week’s episode

The same pathway links food odors and pheromones to their epigenetic effects on hormones that affect behavior in all vertebrates and invertebrates. Classically conditioned responses to pheromones are species-specific, which may explain why there is no mention of androsterone in the American Chemical Society (ACS) video misrepresentation of biologically-based cause and effect.

Unlike the chemicals mentioned in the ACS video, androsterone is one of two primary metabolites of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). DHEA levels are maximized in primates, and DHEA is an indicator of human male reproductive fitness. When combined with androstenol, it alters the observed flirtatious behavior of women and their self-reported level of attraction to the man wearing the mixture.

Human pheromones and nutrient chemicals: epigenetic effects on ecological, social, and neurogenic niches that affect behavior.

See also: Nutrient-dependent / Pheromone-controlled adaptive evolution: (a mammalian model of thermodynamics and organism-level thermoregulation)  

Human pheromones: integrating neuroendocrinology and ethology 

Human pheromones and food odors: epigenetic influences on the socioaffective nature of evolved behaviors.

Nutrient-dependent/pheromone-controlled adaptive evolution: a model.

Exposure to common quaternary ammonium disinfectants decreases fertility in mice reported as Missing Mouse Mojo

Excerpt: “I was shocked and horrified to see just how common these chemicals are. This stuff is everywhere. We’re wiping it on our hands and desktops. It’s in my kitchen at home. It’s everywhere,” Hrubec says.

My comment: Is anyone else dying to see the ACS video representation of biologically-based cause and effect attributed to toxic chemicals? Human pheromones are not toxic. If you can convince people that they have no epigenetic effects of behavior, you can probably downplay the role of chemicals in our food and in everything else. That’s where the money is.

About James V. Kohl 1308 Articles
James Vaughn Kohl was the first to accurately conceptualize human pheromones, and began presenting his findings to the scientific community in 1992. He continues to present to, and publish for, diverse scientific and lay audiences, while constantly monitoring the scientific presses for new information that is relevant to the development of his initial and ongoing conceptualization of human pheromones. Recently, Kohl integrated scientific evidence that pinpoints the evolved neurophysiological mechanism that links olfactory/pheromonal input to genes in hormone-secreting cells of tissue in a specific area of the brain that is primarily involved in the sensory integration of olfactory and visual input, and in the development of human sexual preferences. His award-winning 2007 article/book chapter on multisensory integration: The Mind’s Eyes: Human pheromones, neuroscience, and male sexual preferences followed an award winning 2001 publication: Human pheromones: integrating neuroendocrinology and ethology, which was coauthored by disinguished researchers from Vienna. Rarely do researchers win awards in multiple disciplines, but Kohl’s 2001 award was for neuroscience, and his 2007 “Reiss Theory” award was for social science. Kohl has worked as a medical laboratory scientist since 1974, and he has devoted more than twenty-five years to researching the relationship between the sense of smell and the development of human sexual preferences. Unlike many researchers who work with non-human subjects, medical laboratory scientists use the latest technology from many scientific disciplines to perform a variety of specialized diagnostic medical testing on people. James V. Kohl is certified with: * American Society for Clinical Pathology * American Medical Technologists James V. Kohl is a member of: * Society for Neuroscience * Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology * Association for Chemoreception Sciences * Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality * International Society for Human Ethology * American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science * Mensa, the international high IQ society