Gay Mens Brain React Differently to Scent

[Lex]

Personally, I'm not into manscent and I still found this very interesting.

Originally posted by CNN.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A compound taken from male sweat stimulates the brains of gay men and straight women but not heterosexual men, raising the possibility that homosexual brains are different, researchers in Sweden reported on Monday.

It also strengthens the evidence that humans respond to pheromones -- compounds known to affect animal behavior, especially mating behavior, but whose role in human activity has been questioned.

The pheromone in question is a derivative of testosterone called 4,16-androstadien-3-one, or AND.

"AND is detected primarily in male sweat," the researchers write in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a previous study, Ivanka Savic of Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm and colleagues found that the hypothalamus region of the brain became activated when women smelled AND and when men smelled a corresponding compound in female urine called EST.

This time they compared the reactions of 12 women, 12 heterosexual men and 12 homosexual men.

They let them smell EST, AND, and ordinary odors such as lavender, and used positron emission tomography to watch their brain responses.

"In contrast to heterosexual men, and in congruence with heterosexual women, homosexual men displayed hypothalamic activation in response to AND," Savic's team wrote.

And a region of the brain called the anterior hypothalamus responded most strongly -- an area that in animals "is highly involved in sexual behavior".

But other smells were processed the same in all three groups.

"These findings show that our brain reacts differently to the two putative pheromones compared with common odors, and suggest a link between sexual orientation and hypothalamic neuronal processes," Savic's team wrote.

In most animals, pheromone signals go to the hypothalamus region of the brain via a pit-like structure in or near the nose called the vomeronasal organ.

People have a vomeronasal pit but there are no nerves connecting it to the brain, leading biologists to question whether humans respond to pheromones.

 

[Dr Rock]

who wants to sniff my armpits, i guarantee it will cause massive activity in the "crematorium / mass grave" area of your brain

 

[Freddie53]

This doesn't surprise me at all. Humans are mammals. We share 95 % of the same DNA as chimps. The finding that "smells" attract or as the case don't attract has humans in line with the other mammals. It only makes sense.

Blind people fall in love. Sure, personalities, common interests and such play a role. But I have always thought that there was a scent that played a role.

I suspect that as two people are attracted to each other, the amount of this "scent" increases. I wish they would do a study to see if that is true.

If this findings are eventually accepted as factual rather then theory, then the whole issue of gay attraction is not only solved, but the idea that a person can change will be discredited.

Apparently, Bis are affected by both female and male scents. I wish that the bi sexual group had been included in the study or will be added later.

 

[major_7]

*sniff, sniff*
That don't smell like teen spirit Dr. Rock!

Saw the article this morning and thought it was very interesting. It was interesting to note that the study on gay women and scent was "somewhat complicated and not yet ready for publication."

I'd be curious to know how many of the lpsg men who identify themselves as primarily heterosexual think of this research. And ladies of lpsg, do you find the scent of a man stimulating? And of course, gay guys, does the pheromones "stir some behavior" for you?

Could this be a poll? If so, could someone set it up, as I haven't figured out how to yet.

 

[Pecker]

Maybe, but a fart is still a fart.

 

[Dr Rock]

STOP THE PRESSES: NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS PEOPLE MAY BE DIFFERENT

christ i can't even type a 10-word post without fucking it up

 

[B_RoysToy]

The more senses involved during my sex, the more stimulated I become. Touch, sight, sound, smell, along with all the emotional cravings just make up the total 'me'. The press release caught my attention, too, and I would be surprised had any other results been postulated. Hopefully some day science will prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that gay is as physically different from hetero as the penis is from the vagina.

 

[KinkGuy]

Nature / Nurture. Yet more proof why some of us are cocksuckers. But the study didn't say if the "bi" guys got just half horny?

 

[B_DoubleMeatWhopper]

I don't mind some sweat, but I'm skeptical about what the study suggests. I will often find a man attractive before I'm within sniffing range of him. And if the scent of sweat is what's responsible for sexual attraction, why am not interested in the guy on the Stair Master who looks like Jabba the Hutt with hair growing out of his ears? He sweats more than Meatloaf!

 

[BobLeeSwagger]

Originally posted by DoubleMeatWhopper@May 10 2005, 05:55 PM
I don't mind some sweat, but I'm skeptical about what the study suggests. I will often find a man attractive before I'm within sniffing range of him. And if the scent of sweat is what's responsible for sexual attraction, why am not interested in the guy on the Stair Master who looks like Jabba the Hutt with hair growing out of his ears? He sweats more than Meatloaf!

[post=309897]Quoted post[/post]​

What I wonder is how much this physiological response is a cause or an effect of the person's sexuality. Say, for the sake of argument, that this scent factor is the primary means of determining which gender you're attracted to. Eventually a gay man might associate arousal with men instead of women, so he can eventually be attracted to a man whether he smells him or not. What if a guy was mentally opposed to being gay, but physically responded to male pheromones? This would make for a pretty conflicted guy!

I'm sure it's far more complicated than this, of course. It's probably a combination of mental and physical factors. But to me this study says less about gay men than it does about pheromones in general.

 

[jonb]

Originally posted by DoubleMeatWhopper@May 10 2005, 04:55 PM
I don't mind some sweat, but I'm skeptical about what the study suggests. I will often find a man attractive before I'm within sniffing range of him. And if the scent of sweat is what's responsible for sexual attraction, why am not interested in the guy on the Stair Master who looks like Jabba the Hutt with hair growing out of his ears? He sweats more than Meatloaf!

[post=309897]Quoted post[/post]​

Agreed. Actually, the human olfactory receptors aren't all that sensitive anyway. At least not relaitve to those of any other terrestrial vertebrate.