Sandwalk: David Evans Says, "Teach What the Vast Majority of Scientists Affirm as Settled Science"
Sandwalk: David Evans Says, "Teach What the Vast Majority of Scientists Affirm as Settled Science"

Human Pheromones: The Scent of Eros

There is no aspect of "Natural Selection" that is "Settled Science"  because no experimental evidence supports any associated claims. See, for example:

"The hypothesis that evolvability - the capacity to evolve by natural selection - is itself the object of natural selection is highly intriguing but remains controversial due in large part to a paucity of direct experimental evidence." 

Abstract excerpt from: Natural Selection Promotes Antigenic Evolvability

What happens when you try to tell evolutionary theorists about that fact is:

"I've decided that you should take a little break from commenting here.

Goodbye for now."

See the comment by Lawrence A. Moran on his popular blog "Sandwalk"
- posted by JVKohl @ 5:01 AM (1) comments

 
Neuroskeptic: Men and Women: From Earth, Not Mars & Venus?
Neuroskeptic: Men and Women: From Earth, Not Mars & Venus?

Human Pheromones: The Scent of Eros

jvkohl said...

In "Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation" Simon Le Vay had this to say about my model for evolved sex differences and their perception: "This model is attractive in that it solves the "binding problem" of sexual attraction. By that I mean the problem of why all the different features of men or women (visual appearance and feel of face, body, and genitals; voice quality, smell; personality and behavior, etc.) attract people as a more or less coherent package representing one sex, rather than as an arbitrary collage of male and female characteristics. If all these characteristics come to be attractive because they were experienced in association with a male- or female-specific pheromone, then they will naturally go together even in the absence of complex genetically coded instructions." (p-210) My mammalian model incorporates the same central neuronal system that ensures nutrient chemical-dependent gonadtropin releasing hormone (GnRH)-directed reproduction. The response to mammalian pheromones is also GnRH-dependent and measured in luteinizing hormone (LH) in mammals, including humans. One need only view the perception of physical characteristics of other people as you would the physical characteristics of an appealing (or not) food, to begin to realize the explanatory power of the epigenetic effects of food odors and social odors called pheromones on the conditioning of associated hormone responses during the development of food preferences and sexual preferences. The mistake most researchers continue to make involves the assumption that we have reduced olfactory acuity and specificity compared to other species, which leads most people to think they are primarily visual creatures. No neuroscientific approach suggests that this is true -- at a time when it is obvious that "Olfaction and odor receptors provide a clear evolutionary trail that can be followed from unicellular organisms to insects to humans." -- Kohl, J.V. (2012) Human pheromones and food odors: epigenetic influences on the socioaffective nature of evolved behaviors. Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology, 2: 17338.

- posted by JVKohl @ 2:10 PM (0) comments

 
Human Pheromones: The Scent of Eros
Some scientists tend to confuse co-existence with cause and effect. It is important to know the difference when discussing brain activation. These three articles help to illustrate the difference.

Savic, I. and H. Berglund (2010). “Androstenol – a Steroid Derived Odor Activates the Hypothalamus in Women.” PLoS ONE 5(2): e865 Information about a pathway that connects olfactory/pheromonal input (i.e., androstenol) to hormonal changes in the brain.

Cause and effect (above): The evolved neurophysiological mechanism that allows olfactory/pheromonal input from the social environment of all mammals to cause changes in behavior is detailed in an award-winning journal article that was concurrently published as a book chapter. See: The Mind’s Eyes: Human Pheromones, Neuroscience, and Male Sexual Preferences.

Co-existence (below): If there is a mechanism that allows visual input from the human social environment to cause changes in behavior, the mechanism is not known to known to exist in other mammals, or in any species.

Platek, S. M. and D. Singh (2010). “Optimal Waist-to-Hip Ratios in Women Activate Neural Reward Centers in Men.” PLoS ONE 5(2): e9042. An unknown mechanism might – if it exists — link visual input to brain activation. If brain activation occurs via this unknown mechanism, it might be associated with the development of men’s preferences for the visual appeal of a woman’s waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).

Karremans, J. C., E. F. Willem, Willem E., et al. (2010). “Blind men prefer a low waist-to-hip ratio.” Evolution and Human Behavior (in press). The visual link to brain activation associated with WHR preferences is not required for the development of this preference.
- posted by JVKohl @ 3:18 PM (0) comments

 
The latest research (Miller and Maner, 2009), which I cited yesterday, helps to establish the link from human pheromones to behavior. It shows that human pheromones elicit changes in hormone levels. There's a well detailed pathway to changes in testosterone (T) that starts with gene activation in hormone-secreting cells of hypothalamic tissue in the brain, which is the organ that controls our behavior. What this means is that human pheromones are chemicals found in our social environment that directly activate a gene-cell-tissue-organ-organ system pathway, which directly links pheromones to behavior.
- posted by JVKohl @ 2:28 PM (0) comments

 
Latest published research findings.

Scent of a Woman (from Psychological Science)
by Saul L. Miller and Jon K. Maner
"The current research provides evidence that ovulatory cues are detectable via chemosensory signaling and, moreover, that these cues are linked with functionally relevant endocrinological responses in men."

Full text available on-line (Free)
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2009/12/21/0956797609357733.abstract
- posted by JVKohl @ 2:49 PM (0) comments

 
Kohl, J. V. (2007). The Mind's Eyes: Human pheromones, neuroscience, and male sexual preferences. In M. R. Kauth (Ed.), Handbook of the Evolution of Human Sexuality(pp. 313-369) Haworth Press.

Labels: Publications

- posted by JVKohl @ 5:53 AM

 
www.pheromones.com
Human Pheromones: SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE
(Updated 5/20/2005)
Human Pheromones: Integrating Neuroendocrinology and Ethology: a review by James V. Kohl, M. Atzmueller, B. Fink, & K. Grammer was published in Neuroendocrinology Letters 22(5), p. 309-321.

This award winning review is the first to link pheromones and olfactory conditioning of the human sexual response to personal preferences for symmetry, genetic diversity, hormone-mediated facial features, and hormone-mediated body types. It is an overview of how pheromones are involved in the development (organization and activation) of human sexual behavior.

Also see: Diamond M, Binstock T, & Kohl JV (1996) From fertilization to adult sexual behavior: Nonhormonal Influences on sexual behavior. Hormones and Behavior. 30: 333-353.
- posted by JVKohl @ 9:36 PM