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This Just In: People Smell

Posted by timothy on from the nasal-gazing dept.

SAPHRguru writes "New Scientist reports (10 Nov) that researchers may have taken a big step towards solving the mystery of how humans detect pheromones... we do it through our noses! Strange, I always thought I responded to chemical cues through my mouth (especially in brownies)!"

5 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. No VMO in humans? by nlh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ok, I'm confused. According to the article:

    ...scientists have never been able to identify a VMO in humans, despite evidence that they do respond to pheromones.

    But that doesn't sound right. Believe it or not, I actually wrote a paper for my freshman psychology class back in Fall '96 on the effect of human pheromones and the VMO. At that time, at least, it was fairly well known that the VMO did indeed exist in humans, and that even its location in the human body was known (See this and this, for example).

    So when did it vanish from scientific literature, or was its existence called into question?

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    1. Re:No VMO in humans? by SEE · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, New Scientist made a hash of it.

      Humans have a VNO, but whether it works or not is a disputed question; there's both physiological and genetic reasons to believe that it's vestigial in humans, and possibly apes and Old World monkeys. If it is, then pheremones, which we know affect humans, must be detected by another system.

      So what the researchers in this case did was see if pheremones could cause reactions in the main olfactory system of mice. If they did (and they did), it explains how humans can be affected by pheremones despite a possibly vestigial VNO.

  2. This is a MOUSE STUDY!!! by GuyMannDude · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Guys, relax. The article clearly states that this study was done on MICE and not HUMANS!! They're just making a guess that people detect pheromones through their nose, too -- they don't know this.

    Talk about jumping the gun...

    GMD

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  3. Anosmia? by robson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Are pheromones delivered through the *exact same* sensory mechanism as smell, or do they diverge into separate paths at some point?

    I ask because I have congenital anosmia -- no sense of smell. None. What I want to know is whether I'm still picking up on the subtle messages delivered by pheromones.

  4. The really sad part about the article... by tuxedobob · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...is that they only quote one doctor.

    That quote is at the end of the article.

    The doctor tells us, "But we don't generally use urine as a social signal."

    They didn't get anything else they could print?