Human pheromones and the visual appeal of other people (Part one)

Groundbreaking discovery of mutation causing genetic disorder in humans

Excerpt: “The findings also provide a framework for understanding fascinating evolutionary questions, such as why humans of different ethnicities have distinct facial features and how these are embedded in our genome. IRX genes have been repeatedly co-opted during evolution, and small variation in their activity could underlie fine alterations in the way we look…”

My comments:

This “Nature Genetics” paper (subscription required) details the complex stochiometry (i.e., ‘chemistry’) of intracellular signaling and stochastic gene expression. A link from one nutrient chemical (folate) to genetically predisposed gonadal and craniofacial effects brings to bear the interdisciplinary approach that is required to link epigenetic effects, nutrient chemicals, pheromones, intracellular signaling, gene expression, and transgenerational epigenetic inheritance to reproduction (or not) associated with the visual perception of physical (e.g., facial)features.

Evolutionary theorists and sexuality researchers may want to reconsider how much they know about the genetically predisposed nutrient-dependent visual appeal of human facial characteristics and try to explain how a random mutation or anything except nutrient chemicals could cause adaptive evolution that is manifested in the physical features and pheromones of species from microbes to man. Faces and brains do not seem to be required for adaptive evolution. Nutrient chemical and pheromones are required.

The basic principles of biology and levels of biological organization continue to show that the visual appeal of conspecifics in species with eyes and brains is a conditioned response to olfactory / pheromonal input. The same basic principles of biology and levels of biological organization are unquestionably responsible for the visual appeal of food  in species with eyes and brains. Is there another model for that?

If not, human pheromones must be responsible for the visual appeal of other people, as detailed in: Human pheromones and food odors: epigenetic influences on the socioaffective nature of evolved behaviors

Human pheromones and the visual appeal of other people (Part Two)

It’s been two months since publication of Kohl, J.V. (2012) Human pheromones and food odors: epigenetic influences on the socioaffective nature of evolved behaviors. Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology, 2: 17338. I have since chronicled the appearance of additional facts that attest to the most important aspect of any scientific endeavor, which is to first get the model right.

The “Nature Genetics” paper (subscription required) I cited in Part One is another publication that attests to the fact my model is the right model. The senior author of this paper states in his interview: “The findings also provide a framework for understanding fascinating evolutionary questions, such as why humans of different ethnicities have distinct facial features and how these are embedded in our genome. IRX genes have been repeatedly co-opted during evolution, and small variation in their activity could underlie fine alterations in the way we look…

His statement about genes and alterations in the way we “look” brings together the following aspects of my model:

1) ecology and the nutrient chemical-dependent evolution of ecological niches;

2) social interactions and the pheromone-dependent evolution of social niches.

Ecological and social niches cause the evolution of neurogenic niches.

3) Neurogenic niches are responsible for the evolution of the brain.

Our evolved brain is responsible for our behavior, and our behavior is determined by the epigenetic effects of nutrient chemicals and pheromones, not by what we see or consciously perceive to be physically attractive features in other people. Our response to the way they “look” is conditioned by our experience with the chemistry of other people throughout a lifetime of experiences that begin before we are born, with in utero mother-infant chemical exchanges.

If it takes someone with academic credentials to make this clear in future publications with broad based integration of ecological niches, social niches, neurogenic niches and conditioned behaviors, so be it. But this post serves notice that it has already been done using model organisms that extend the concept of olfactory/pheromonal cause and effect from microbes to man.

Minimally, I can expect there will less Cryptomnesia, which occurs when a forgotten memory returns as if it were a new inspiration. Many marketers of human pheromone products are afflicted with this memory disorder (if they are not, in truth, stealing and/or plagiarizing what they read here in violation of copyright law). However,  a search strategy that incorporates the terms: ecological, social, neurogenic, and niche, should soon provide a link that supplements a search strategy that incorporates: “gene-cell-tissue-organ“, or “gene, cell, tissue, organ” and links to my other publications in the context of the biology of behavioral development.

I have spent more than 2 decades developing the model I first presented at a scientific congress in 1991. Establishing it as the “right model” is not something I can do; it takes “common sense,” and no one can teach that to anyone else.  For example, if someone doesn’t already realize that the common sense across all species is their ability to sense nutrient chemicals and pheromones, they can’t be taught to put adaptive evolution into the correct perspective  where “Olfaction and odor receptors provide a clear evolutionary trail that can be followed from unicellular organisms to insects to humans.” Instead, they are more likely to think about, and study the effects of visual imagery on the brain and behavior because they think that visual input is most important to the development of human behavior. Clearly, however, there is no model for that!

Human pheromones and the visual appeal of other people (Part Three)

In part two of my posts from May 15th, I expressed concern that someone might attempt to steal my thunder with regard to the importance of the ecological, social, and neurogenic niches to adaptive evolution. Today, my concerns were somewhat alleviated by publication of:.

The extended evolutionary synthesis and the role of soft inheritance in evolution by Thomas E. Dickins, and Qazi Rahman

Excerpt: “As a thought experiment we can imagine selection building a learning mechanism that is biased to make certain associations. Epigenetic mechanisms would be a candidate solution to introducing shifts in learning bias across such situations, as would endocrine functioning.”

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My comment:  That’s more that just a thought experiment in my model, where nothing is left to the imagination.  The epigenetic calibration of intracellular signaling and stochastic gene expression by nutrient chemicals and the standardization and control of reproduction by the epigenetic effects of pheromones on intracellular signaling and stochastic gene expression cause the patterned variation that persists in the extended evolutionary synthesis of biological design, which incorporates transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Nutrient chemicals cause ecological niches to form that enable interactions among the conspecifics of social niches.  Nutrition and pheromones are both required for epigenetic effects on development of a neurogenic niche in the honeybee brain and a hypothalamic neurogenic niche in the mammalian brain. This neurogenic niche directs the differentiation of other neuronal systems in the brain during the behavioral development of the organism. The honeybee is the model organism that links what the queen eats to her pheromone production and neuroanatomy of the brain and the behavior of her offspring. The threespine stickleback is the vertebrate model for epigenetic effects on pre-existing genetic variation. In mammals, epigenetic cause is modeled via the receptor-mediated effects of nutrient chemicals and pheromones on the hypothalamic gonadotropin releasing hormone neuronal niche that controls brain development and behavior via its effects on luteinizing hormone, steroidogenesis, and hippocampal neurogenesis, which is required for the plasticity of learning and memory during behavioral development.  Adaptive evolution thus incorporates the transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of the sensory environment that contains sufficient nutrient chemicals and conspecifics.

Human Pheromones| Scent of Eros| Unsolicited Video| Audio interview

Scent of Eros products unsolicited 5-minute video testimony and twin test

Scent of Eros products are not aphrodisiacs despite their very positive representation in this promotional video, which was produced without my knowledge.

Audio interview with James V. Kohl

Scent of Eros products have a very positive influence on other people, which is a great thing to promote.  It’s just best not to get too carried away by claims of magical effects.

Human Pheromones: 2010 Powerpoint slides and 2011 poster presentation

Here are the slides with text from a 20 minute-long presentation: Human pheromones: linking neuroendocrinology and ethology (revisited)

20th Biennial Congress of the International Society for Human Ethology 2010, 1 – 5 Aug 2010, Parallel Session A

Background / Purpose: Their conversion from chemical signals to the mammalian brain’s common language of electrical signals allows food odors and pheromones to activate genes. In this mammalian model, electrostatic gene activation by pheromones links them to a marker of neuronal activity, gene expression, and changes in hypothalamic gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion.

Main conclusion: Changes in GnRH secretion are evidenced in downstream effects on other hormone secretion throughout the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Food odors and pheromones activate the prenatal organization of the HPG and HPA axes and postnatally “calibrate” the genetically predisposed survival potential of individuals and species. Calibration of odor preferences occurs via effects on synaptogenesis, synaptolysis, and apoptosis throughout life. In mammals, these effects of odors are routinely associated with neurotransmission, hippocampal neurogenesis, learning, and memory during classically conditioned hormone-driven changes in behavior. In people, these neurophysiological effects of calibration by odors are typically consciously associated only with input from spectral senses (e.g., vision and hearing), or tactile sensations.

Next steps: Extension of this mammalian model to people explains how cerebral activation of hormone-secreting neurons and processes commonly attributed to individual components of the model, like genes or hormones, result in genetically predisposed phenotypic expression, which may or may not be physically or behaviorally manifested during development. The explanation includes (1) a cognitive component associated with the identification and categorization of some odors; (2) an emotional component associated with odors and increased or decreased arousal, appetite, and satiation; (3) a motivational component linked to processes that direct behavior toward or away from food odors and pheromones; and (4) a neurophysiological component, directly linked from odors to gene activation in hormone-secreting nerve cells of brain tissue; to HPG / HPA axis variability, and to behavior.

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An updated poster presentation of the one presented in 2010 is also available: Human pheromones, epigenetics, physiology, and the development of animal behavior.

Association for Chemoreception Sciences Annual Meeting 2011, 13 – 17 Apr 2011, 301

Background/Purpose: We evaluated individual video-taped fifteen-minute interactions of fourteen women with fertile phase levels of Luteinizing Hormone (LH) during a cooperative task. During the task, our male accomplice wore either a standardized androstenol / androsterone mixture diluted in propylene glycol, or just the diluents; with sandalwood odor added to keep him blind to his condition.

Main conclusion: When he was wearing the mixture compared to when he wore the diluent, women were more likely to make eye contact (t (12) = 3.43, p = 0.01; IRR: r = 0.964, p = 0.01). They also laughed more (t (12) = 5.20, p < 0.01; IRR: r = 0.810, p = 0.01), and they subsequently rated themselves as being more attracted to him (t (12) = 2.786, p = 0.016).

Our results combine the known effects of androstenol on LH and on mood with a likely behavioral affect of androsterone.

Human pheromones and brain development

Nature | News

Human brain shaped by duplicate genes

Multiple copies of a gene may have boosted the computational power of our ancestors’ brains.

• Ewen Callaway

03 May 2012

——My comment: I’ve blogged here before about my friend, the late “Bob” Moss. But this latest work comes from UT Southwestern where he did his work.———–

It’s been more than 20 years since the late Robert L. Moss et al. published Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone and Human Sexual Behavior (Moss, Dudley, & Riskind, 1991). Vertebrate gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons produce one of three different peptides, presumably because three paralogous GnRH genes originated from gene duplications (Oka, 2010).

The prenatal migration of GnRH neurons into the brain of humans is responsible for the direct connection from olfactory/pheromonal input to changes in hypothalamic GnRH pulse frequency, luteinizing hormone secretion, and hippocampal neurogenesis, which links food odors and social odors to learning and memory required for adaptive behaviors based on nutrient chemical availability and the presence or absence of conspecifics. It is likely that anything that alters GnRH pulse frequency, whether it’s the gene or genes responsible for Kallmann’s syndrome, or nutrient chemical availability that alters maturation of the brain and behavior will alter learning and memory associated with food acquisition and mate choice as preferences develop based on prenatal chemical exchanges in placental mammals and the postnatal effects of food odors and pheromones.

Thus, the epigenetic effects of chemicals from our sensory environment on GnRH are probably essential to the development of an evolved brain and behavior involved in seeking out proper nutrition and reproductively “fit” mates. “Bob” Moss knew he would not be able to prove the cause and effect relationship that continues to show up in the newest literature on human brain development, but he also knew that someone would prove the link from GnRH to nutrition dependent human sexual behavior. Clearly, others are getting closer to that proof, as is seen in this latest news on gene duplications and human brain development. It may nevertheless be important to keep in mind that evolved brain development is dependent on nutrient chemicals and pheromones that alter receptor-mediated intracellular signaling and stochastic gene expression in species from microbes to man, if only to keep evolved brain development in its proper context.

Moss, R. L., Dudley, C. A., & Riskind, P. N. (1991). Gonadotropin releasing hormone and human sexual behavior. In C. B. Nemeroff (Ed.), Neuropeptides and Psychiatric Disorders. Washington, D.C: American Psychiatric Press.

Oka, Y. (2010). Electrophysiological Characteristics of Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone 1-3 Neurones: Insights From a Study of Fish Brains. Journal of Neuroendocrinology, 22(7), 659-663.

Human Pheromones and Consilience

Consilience Conference Celebrates Unity of Knowledge In Biology, Social Science, and Humanities – free audiotaped interviews

My comments:

What makes the answer to one question more important than the answer to another question in attempts to understand proximate and ultimate cause across the levels of analysis that are required to link sensory input to evolution and behavior? Evolution of the genotype and its phenotypic expression can only be congruently addressed via the gene, cell, tissue, organ, organ system pathway. No part of this pathway lies outside what is required for a coherent understanding of consilience.

The requirements for proximate bottom-up causal organization and proximate top-down causal activation of this pathway include the reciprocity that is ultimately required for evolution. These requirements are met in the following example of cause and effect.

1) Nutrient chemicals cause receptor-mediated changes in intracellular signaling that cause stochastic gene expression – a bottom-up approach to the biology of consilience.

2) The metabolism of nutrient chemicals to pheromones allows chemicals from the social environment to cause receptor-medicated changes in intracellular signaling that cause stochastic gene expression – a top-down approach to the biology of consilience. (more…)

Pattern recognition: How rational is that?

Study suggests that analytic thinking can undermine religious belief

“Recently there’s been an emerging consensus among [researchers] … that a lot of religious beliefs are grounded in intuitive processes,” says Will Gervais, a graduate student at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, in Canada and a co-author of the new study, published today in Science.

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My comments:

Pattern recognition is required of scientists who have changed the attitudes of their peers. It is also important when comparing analytical thinking to beliefs.

Here’s a pattern

Non-random mutation, as evidenced by ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ genes involved in amino-acid biosynthesis, energy metabolism , and catabolism of specific compounds (Martincorena, Seshasayee , & Luscombe, 2012) is conceptualized in a model for adaptive evolution where 1) nutrient chemicals calibrate intracellular signaling and stochastic gene expression, and 2) the metabolism of nutrients to pheromones standardizes and controls reproduction (Kohl, 2012).

The honeybee is the invertebrate model organism that extends the common molecular biology across species from microbes to man. The pattern is hard to miss, and additional support for that model can found in a recent report on a vertebrate model organism of speciation. Stickleback evolution is accelerated by the use of pre-existing genetic variation, not random mutation (Jones et al., 2012).  Although random mutation may be involved, it is pre-existing genetic variation that allows a cell to adapt to changes in the availability of nutrients from its environment. This ability appears to be programmed into the first living cells. Receptor-mediated cellular changes in the intracellular metabolism of the nutrients enables cell to cell signaling that varies with the metabolism of nutrients to pheromones that control reproduction.

This pattern can be recognized by a general audience. All scientists need to say is that food odors cause us to eat food that metabolizes to pheromones that cause us to develop preferences for other people. For example, in placental mammals, in utero nutrient chemical exchange precedes nutrient chemicals provided though lacation. These nutrient chemicals are associated with the pheromones of the mother and result in social bonding.  In this context, pheromones are social odors just as they are in bacteria, in the honeybees, in the  sticklebacks, and all other species.

The ability to recognize patterns across species helps to ensure that at some point this common thread, which involves only only food odors and social odors,  may allow analytical thinkers to use olfaction and odor receptors to follow a clear evolutionary trail from unicellular organisms to insects to humans.

Jones, F. C., Grabherr, M. G., Chan, Y. F., Russell, P., Mauceli, E., Johnson, J., et al. (2012). The genomic basis of adaptive evolution in threespine sticklebacks. Nature, 484(7392), 55-61.

Kohl, J. V. (2012). Human pheromones and food odors: epigenetic influences on the socioaffective nature of evolved behaviors. Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology , 2, 17338 – DOI: 17310.1340 2/snp.v1733 2i17330.173 38.

Martincorena, I., Seshasayee , A. S. N., & Luscombe, N. M. (2012). Evidence of non-random mutation rates suggests an evolutionary risk management strategy. Nature, advance online publicatio n, doi:10.103 8/nature109 95.

More than speculation: adaptive evolution in species from microbes to man

Excerpt from:  Genetic Variation of an Odorant Receptor OR7D4 and Sensory Perception of Cooked Meat Containing Androstenone

“It is tempting to speculate that certain ORs or variants of ORs influence dietary selection. These ORs might be selected during human evolution based on the available food source in a given habitat.” (Lunde et al., 2012)

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My Comment:

I addressed this speculation with my model of nutrient chemical calibration of individual survival where the nutrient chemicals are metabolized to pheromones that standardize and control reproduction and species survival (Kohl, 2012).

This is what occurs in species from microbes to man, but it is best detailed using the honeybee model organism and what is currently known about the molecular biology, which allows the epigenetic effects of nutrient chemicals and pheromones to be the primary determining factors for species survival (i.e., not random mutations).

As suggested by these authors in the quote above, nutrient chemicals establish the ecological niches, which establish the social niches. In vertebrates the social niches are linked by pheromones to neurogenic niches in the hypothalamus that alter luteinizing hormone, olfactory bulb neurogenesis and hippocampal neurogenesis, learning and memory.

Of course, because I’ve dismissed evolutionary theory that involves random mutations, and used the epigenetic effects of olfactory/pheromonal input on OR variants, which provide a clear evolutionary trail that can be followed from unicellular organisms to insects to humans, my work has been largely ignored. So, it is great to see others speculate about what I have modeled across species from microbes to man. Perhaps now evolutionary theorists, philosophers, and theologians can compare alternative comprehensive models of individual and species survival based on what’s known about current molecular biology.

References (all open access publications) (more…)

Human Pheromones: The smell of the scientific universe expanding

Pheromone ‘Ome,’ the Sound of the Scientific Universe Expanding

[He said, “All the omes derive to some extent from the genome,” and key to all of them is that an ome represents “the entirety of the thing being studied.” ]

My comment:

The entirety of the thing cannot be studied in the absence of its sensory environment. The epigenetic effects of nutrient chemicals and pheromones are responsible for the genome’s evolution and diversification of “omes” from microbes to man.