|
|
|
|
|
|
... |
The smell of attraction
12 January 2009
A study has shown that women react to sweat produced by male sexual activity and that they may even be able to detect if a man is attracted to them by sniffing them.
|
The study, whose results were published in the Journal of Neuroscience, saw psychologists undertake an experiment at Rice University in Texas using samples of male sweat.
In the experiment, sweat was taken from men who had not used deodorant, aftershave or any scented product for two days.
While some of the men in the study had been watching an educational documentary, others had been given pornographic videos to watch.
When female volunteers involved in the study were asked to sniff the different sweat pads from thee male volunteers, brain scans showed their reaction to the sexual sweat aroused different part of their brains.
According to the Journal of Neuroscience, sexual sweat activated regions of the women’s brains that are linked to emotion, pleasure, sex and reproduction.
This is not the first study to look at how scent can affect human behaviour and it seems, sexual attraction.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2007 suggested that humans can secrete a scent that affects the opposite sex.
The research found that by smelling androstadienone - a pheromone found in male sweat and perfumes - the levels of the hormone cortisol was raised in women.
This is significant because as well as being associated with stress, cortisol is known to relate to arousal and brain activation.
Commenting on the results of the study, Claire Wyart, a postdoctoral researcher in the Berkeley Olfactory Research Program, said in a statement: "Many people argue that human pheromones don't exist, because humans don't exhibit stereotyped behaviour.
"Nonetheless, this male chemical signal, androstadienone, does cause hormonal as well as physiological and psychological chang
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
