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Gay or Straight? The Nose Knows
ScienceNOW Daily News ^ | 9 May 2006 | Laura Blackburn

Posted on 05/11/2006 4:39:41 PM PDT by neverdem

When it comes to responding to pheromonelike chemical signals, lesbian women are much more like heterosexual men than their straight counterparts, according to a new study. The findings could lead to new insights into the neural basis of sexual preference and behavior, say the researchers.

Pheromones are the ultimate aphrodisiacs. Many animals use the sex-specific scents to sniff out their partner of choice. The pheromones of female moths, for example, can attract a mate from several kilometers away. Whether the substances also play a role in human mating is less clear. Potential candidates include AND, a progesterone-derived molecule found in men's sweat, and EST, which is related to estrogen and found in pregnant women's urine. But neither has yet met the strict criteria that would define it as a pheromone.

Nevertheless, the compounds do seem to have sex-specific effects. In response to a whiff of AND, heterosexual women and homosexual men respond in the same way: The front part of their brain's hypothalamus, which plays a role in sexual behavior, starts to rev up. Heterosexual men, on the other hand, don't respond to AND. For them, EST hits the spot (ScienceNOW, 9 May 2005).

Neurologist Ivanka Savic-Berglund of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues wondered how lesbian women would respond to these substances. The team gave 12 lesbians a sniff of AND and EST and used positron emission tomography to measure blood flow in their brains. They then compared these results to those obtained from their previous studies on heterosexual men and women.

Much like heterosexual men, lesbians responded to EST but not AND. The way that EST activated the hypothalamus, however, was not identical in the two groups. In other words, the brain's response to female compound differed slightly depending on whether a man or woman was doing the smelling. This contrasts with the results of the previous study, in which the brain's response to a male hormone (AND) was almost exactly the same, regardless of the smeller. Thus, says Savic-Berglund, while gay men and straight women have an essentially identical response to an attractive hormone, gay women and straight men differ slightly in this response. This discrepancy may indicate that homosexuality does not work the same way in men and women--at least on a neural level, the team reports online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This is a very nice study, with clear findings" says neuroscientist Sandra Witelson of the de Groote Medical School at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. Further research will allow scientists to unravel whether the relationship between sexual preference and brain response is learned or "hard-wired" into the brain and will give valuable insight into the differences between male and female homosexuality, she says.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: biology; imaging; petscans; pheromones; science
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Overview of human pheromones

Positron Emission Tomography Scanning

1 posted on 05/11/2006 4:39:44 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Smell liks a55 in here.


2 posted on 05/11/2006 4:41:59 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: neverdem

Well I do know that my gay nephew has been feminine his whole life and is even more so now that he is 36. He never dated women, has always lived with a man.


3 posted on 05/11/2006 4:42:10 PM PDT by buffyt (America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people. Pres. George Bush)
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To: neverdem

"When it comes to responding to pheromonelike chemical signals, lesbian women are much more like heterosexual men than their straight counterparts"

Maybe because they wear men's clothes?


4 posted on 05/11/2006 4:42:20 PM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
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To: neverdem

What about homosexual men? Do they respond to the smell of skatole? So do dogs.


5 posted on 05/11/2006 4:42:36 PM PDT by 45Auto (Big holes are (almost) always better.)
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To: neverdem

Smell you later...


6 posted on 05/11/2006 4:42:46 PM PDT by demlosers
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To: martin_fierro

7 posted on 05/11/2006 4:42:53 PM PDT by BunnySlippers (We want our day: A day without hearing SPANISH ...)
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To: neverdem

Maybe this explains why I can only attract moths.


8 posted on 05/11/2006 4:46:09 PM PDT by Tall_Texan (I wish a political party would come along that thinks like I do.)
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To: neverdem

I suspect that pheromones are powerful regulators of human behavior and that most of them are detected subconsciously.


9 posted on 05/11/2006 4:47:16 PM PDT by Savage Beast (The Spirit of Flight 93 is the Spirit of America!)
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To: Tall_Texan

Gay moths, of course, are attracted to moth balls.


10 posted on 05/11/2006 4:49:17 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: neverdem

Something about this study was posted yesterday, I think, and if I remember correctly, the Stockholm scientists were disavowing any notion that the pheromone reaction in humans was proven.

Somebody else know/have the link of the prior post?


11 posted on 05/11/2006 4:49:55 PM PDT by Wicket (God bless and protect our troops and God bless America)
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To: neverdem
according to a new study

That's it.  I am now, officially sick and f*cking tired of that phrase.

 

12 posted on 05/11/2006 4:50:33 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (ISLAM: The Other Psychosis)
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To: neverdem
The only foolproof odor that attracts women:


13 posted on 05/11/2006 4:50:42 PM PDT by Tall_Texan (I wish a political party would come along that thinks like I do.)
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To: durasell; Tall_Texan

They have been hit in the chin with more moth balls than Ty Cobb.


14 posted on 05/11/2006 4:52:25 PM PDT by BunnySlippers (We want our day: A day without hearing SPANISH ...)
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To: Tall_Texan

I can only attract lesbians.....but they are fun to watch! ;-)


15 posted on 05/11/2006 4:53:24 PM PDT by Normal4me
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To: durasell
That's hilarious! :)
16 posted on 05/11/2006 4:53:41 PM PDT by dmw
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To: buffyt

He ain't gay, he is olfactory challenged.


17 posted on 05/11/2006 4:55:10 PM PDT by Radix (Stop domestic violence. Beat abroad.)
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To: dmw

rim shot, please!

I'll be here all week, don't forget to try the veal and tip your waitress right.


18 posted on 05/11/2006 4:55:30 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: Psycho_Bunny
according to a new study

That's it. I am now, officially sick and f*cking tired of that phrase.

Really. How does this explain a teenage boy jumping any girl that says "yes?" Do "yes" girls all smell the same?
This is a stupid study. The mind is the builder and the physical is the result.
The homos are perverted thinkers that act on their perversion. Nothing more. Pedophiles do the same thing. So do rapists.

19 posted on 05/11/2006 4:55:36 PM PDT by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal.")
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To: durasell

LOL! You are a funny one!


20 posted on 05/11/2006 5:02:59 PM PDT by dmw
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