Presentation on Human Pheromones delivered on August 3, 2010

International Society of Human Ethology, August 1-5, 2010, Madison, Wisconsin

J. V. Kohl

Human Pheromones: Linking Neuroendocrinology and Ethology (revisited)

Abstract

The evolution of food choice and mate choice provides a bottom-up model that reveals we are genetically predisposed to respond to olfactory/pheromonal input with alterations that occur in hormone-secreting cells of tissue in the brain. With unparalleled reciprocity, the development of human personal preferences for visually perceived physical features is accompanied by a top-down model. The direct effect of the olfactory/pheromonal input on the central nervous system alters the genetically predisposed maturation of the neuroendocrine system and the reproductive system during a behavioral maturation sequence driven by the same hormone-secreting nerve cells. This direct effect of olfactory/pheromonal input is associated with other sensory input from the social environment that is not required for the development of human personal preferences (e.g., visual input associated with visually perceived physical features). Cultural effects on behavior are effects of gene-culture co-evolution that allows us to think about the relative salience of sensory input.

Talk Proposal

Visual input from our social environment co-exists in reports of observed behavioral affects that tend to confuse co-existence with cause and effect. (more…)