Do Pheromones really work for sexual attraction? If so how?
In: Biology
Yes, if you are an insect.
Members of one sex produce a chemical and release it into the air to attract members of the other sex.
Just to be clear, humans do not have pheromones. All pheromones are processed by a neuronal structure called the vomeronasal organ, or VNO. The VNO directly activates another structure called the accessory olfactory bulb, or AOB.
Humans do not have a functioning VNO or an AOB, so we have no way to actually process pheromones.
Have you ever tasted something inside your stomach?
Of course not – your taste buds are on your tongue, not inside your stomach. But your stomach still “tastes”, in a sense – it can detect the things you’ve eaten and process them appropriately.
Pheromones are sort of like that. Pheromone receptors are the smelling equivalent of your stomach – your body can process pheromones, but it doesn’t allow you to “smell” them – essentially your body says, ‘I’ve got this, and I don’t need to bother your conscious mind with it, so I won’t *tell* you what this tastes like.’
Instead, it just offers you other ways to experience the effects of them.
Does that make some sense?
Most commenters here are coming down pretty hard on the strict definition of “pheromone”.
Strictly speaking, a pheromone is an a signaling molecule (typically airborne, although heavy and sticky) that is produced for the purpose of communicating information to other members of the same species, and is detectable in extremely small quantities. In vertebrates, pheromones are typically (but maybe not always) received by the vomeronasal.
By this strict definition, there is not sufficient evidence to say that humans have pheromones. But there is plenty of evidence that our bodies produce chemicals that other humans can use to gain information about us, and that some of these may be involved in attraction and mating behavior. These types of chemicals are sometimes called “keromones” to distinguish them from strictly-defined pheromones. Colloquially, people often use “pheromone” to describe any airborne, information-carrying molecule.
More to your actual question, most of what we know about chemical communication in humans is from carefully-controlled laboratory studies that don’t resemble normal human interaction. The most interesting behavioral studies that I know of (exotic dancers make significantly more tip money during ovulation, and women partnered to men with more similar immune systems are more likely to cheat) are possibly related to olfactory cues, but the olfactory element was not identified in those studies.
Personally I don’t find strictly rejecting controversial conceptions appropriate. While we know human beings are mainly attracted via visual cues, pheromones may play a minor role. [Wikipedia article on this subject](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_pheromones) is worth reading.
could be something in that ovulation thread, like how women living in close proximity will synch menses over time. A chemical signal is the link? or how the smell of fear causes anxiety?
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