Sniffing out your nightlife / Pheromone-infused nightclubs

Clubbers can smell a good nightspot

Since the smoking ban in restaurants, bars and nightclubs, customers are more aware of unpleasant smells, such as body odors and the smell of old beer, that used to be masked by cigarette smoke. Now science is looking at how the introduction of pleasant ambient scents that hide unwanted odors might enhance the nightlife experience. According to Dr. Hendrik Schifferstein from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and his colleagues, carefully selected fragrances can enhance dancing activity, improve the overall perception of the evening, and improve how nightclub goers rate the music as well as their mood. Their findings were just published online in Springer’s journal Chemosensory Perception.  Free Full Text Here

My Comment:

Pheromone – infused nightclubs are obviously the wave of the future.

Erox rises from the ashes

‘Erox” (aka Pherin and Human Pheromone Sciences):

Not to be confused with Eros, as in The Scent of Eros products and the first book about human pheromones.

Despite what has been indicated in recent news news, I have seen no mention in the scientific literature of results from a unisex fragrance. Nothing indicates it might increase feelings of arousal, excitement, social warmth and friendliness.  From the report/ad copy linked here, I can’t be sure if these results supposedly come from a study of the ER303 compound, and can’t assess the claim that it has been shown to increase feelings of attraction and flirtiness during a double blind placebo controlled study.

In contrast, results of a mixture of androsterone and androstenol were again presented in April 2011 at the annual meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences. Our mixture, increases women’s observed flirtatious behavior and self-reported level of attraction during a 15 minute interaction with a man wearing the mixture.

I find it unfortunate that consumers appear to be in for another blast of product marketing geared to those who are desperate to believe in a magical aphrodisiacal effect (of sea coral?). At least, so far, there’s no claim that the new chemical acts via a non-functional organ or “sixth sense.” But that simply makes me wonder what their new approach will be.

My approach has been to detail the scientific facts we used in our study design that was the first to show behavioral affects of human pheromones.  But our results have also been presented during different scientific congresses, so that they can be evaluated by peers, who are not as readily convinced by marketers when it comes to claims about their “pheromones”.

Avian recognition of human faces

I’ve added my comments on the physorg.com site to those that follow this article, which attempts to convince us that birds recognize individual  human facial features via some unknown mechanism that does not involve olfaction and pheromones.

I know you, bad guy! Magpies recognize humans

Most people who have had the experience of having pet animals in their houses have the gut feeling that the animals can “recognize” us. They seem to recognize our faces, our voices and our smell. One way or another, they respond to us differently from other people.

Pheromones and a realistic model of sexual differentiation

Reframing sexual differentiation of the brain by Margaret M McCarthy & Arthur P Arnold in Nature Neuroscience 14, 677–683 (2011)

Abstract:
In the twentieth century, the dominant model of sexual differentiation stated that genetic sex (XX versus XY) causes differentiation of the gonads, which then secrete gonadal hormones that act directly on tissues to induce sex differences in function. This serial model of sexual differentiation was simple, unifying and seductive. Recent evidence, however, indicates that the linear model is incorrect and that sex differences arise in response to diverse sex-specific signals originating from inherent differences in the genome and involve cellular mechanisms that are specific to individual tissues or brain regions. Moreover, sex-specific effects of the environment reciprocally affect biology, sometimes profoundly, and must therefore be integrated into a realistic model of sexual differentiation. A more appropriate model is a parallel-interactive model that encompasses the roles of multiple molecular signals and pathways that differentiate males and females, including synergistic and compensatory interactions among pathways and an important role for the environment.

See also: From Fertilization to Adult Sexual Behavior by Milton Diamond, Teresa Binstock, & James V Kohl in Hormones and Behaviour, 30, 333-353 (1996) (more…)