Effect of putative pheromones on the electrical activity of the human vomeronasal organ and olfactory epithelium

Evidence that androstadienone, a putative human chemosignal, modulates women’s attributions of men’s attractiveness

“…Women exposed to androstadienone in the laboratory environment tend to experience positive affective modulation, including fewer feelings of boredom and frustration associated with the laboratory testing session, maintenance of positive moods despite exposure to negative stimuli, and increased feelings of focus (Bensafi et al, 2004a;Grosser et al, 2000;Jacob and McClintock, 2000;Jacob et al, 2001a;Lundström et al, 2003a;Lundström and Olsson, 2005;Villemure and Bushnell, 2007). At the physiological level, androstadienone inhalation precedes measurable changes in endocrine state (Wyart et al, 2007) and autonomic activations (Bensafi et al, 2004a;Grosser et al, 2000;Jacob et al, 2001a;Monti-Bloch and Grosser, 1991) that may be specific to women (Boulkroune et al, 2007). Neurologically, female response to androstadienone extends beyond the olfactory system, activating areas of the brain associated with attention, social cognition, emotional processing, and sexual behavior Jacob et al, 2001b;Savic et al, 2001;Savic et al, 2005).…”

The search for human pheromones: the lost decades and the necessity of returning to first principles

“…The two molecules were among five, described only by code numbers, which had been tested by Monti-Bloch & Grosser [43]. The authors gave no details at all of how these molecules were extracted, identified, bioassayed and demonstrated to be the 'putative pheromones' of the paper's title, just a footnote: 'These putative pheromones were supplied by EROX Corporation' [43].…”

“…These molecules were presented as 'putative human pheromones' by Monti-Bloch & Grosser [43] at a 1991 conference sponsored by the EROX Corporation, which had commercial interests in human pheromones. The two molecules were among five, described only by code numbers, which had been tested by Monti-Bloch & Grosser [43].…”

“…Though the researchers were not associated with the EROX Corporation, the molecules were explicitly chosen because they had been proposed by Monti-Bloch & Grosser [43], Berliner [44] and Monti-Bloch et al [46]. Jacob & McClintock [45] has been cited more than 150 times (Google Scholar, 23 October 2014) and the molecules and the concentrations used by them have become traditional across much of the field to this day.…”

“…The two molecules were among five, described only by code numbers, which had been tested by Monti-Bloch & Grosser [43]. The authors gave no details at all of how these molecules were extracted, identified, bioassayed and demonstrated to be the 'putative pheromones' of the paper's title, just a footnote: 'These putative pheromones were supplied by EROX Corporation' [43]. A later patent, assigned to the EROX Corporation, on 'Fragrance compositions containing human pheromones' [44], gave no details about how the molecules were arrived at but revealed that the two code numbered molecules claimed to have the greatest and most sex-specific effects on the opposite sex in Monti-Bloch & Grosser [43] were androstadienone and estratetraenol, apparently from men and women, respectively.…”