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Pheromone signal transduction in humans: What can be learned from olfactory loss by Ivanka Savic; Ebba Hedén-Blomqvist; Hans Berglund is a Neuroscience article available to read on EtoBox.

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## Abstract Because humans seem to lack neuronal elements in the vomeronasal organ (VNO), many scientists believe that humans are unable to detect pheromones. This view is challenged by the observations that pheromone‐like compounds, 4,16‐androstadien‐3‐one (AND) and oestra‐1,3,5(10),16‐tetraen‐3‐ol (EST), activate the human hypothalamus. Whether these activations are mediated via VNO, venous blood or olfactory mucosa is presently unknown. To disentangle between the three alternatives, we conducted activation studies in 12 heterosexual males with chronic anosmia because of nasal polyps. Polyposis hampers signal transduction via the olfactory mucosa without interfering with the VNO or the pheromone transport via venous blood. Twelve healthy men served as controls. Subjects were investigated with ^15^OH~2~O PET during smelling of odorless air (base line), AND, EST, vanillin, and acetone. Smelling of EST activated the anterior hypothalamus in controls, but not anosmics. Neither did the anosmics display cerebral activations with AND or vanillin. Clusters were detected only with the trigeminal odorant acetone, and only in the thalamus, brainstem, the anterior cingulate, and parts of th

Who reads Pheromone signal transduction in humans: What can be learned from olfactory loss?

Author

Ivanka Savic; Ebba Hedén-Blomqvist; Hans Berglund

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (John Wiley & Sons); John Wiley & Sons Inc.; Wiley; Research Square (ISSN 1065-9471)

Published

2009

Language

EN

Field

Neuroscience (Life Sciences)