Know about sex pheromones in pigs and humans and investigate the effect of androsterone on human behavior through the sense of smell
Know about sex pheromones in pigs and humans and investigate the effect of androsterone on human behavior through the sense of smell
Learn about sex-attractant pheromones in humans and in pigs and about the use of pheromones in the artificial insemination of animals.
© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
NARRATOR: Fanny the fat pig here, is looking for a mate. She's at her most fertile period of the month and most sensitive to sexual signals. As she wanders around the barn, the air is thick with pheromones, oozing off some of the excited boars. Even amongst the pig muck, the pheromones can break through with their basic and powerful signal. A sensitive sow will now head for a boar producing the most pheromone. Unfortunately, poor Fanny doesn't actually get to meet one of these boars. Instead, she's going to receive the sperm artificially.
When she's at her most fertile, she's ready for insemination. A quick spray of an artificial form of the pheromone across her nose, and she automatically stands still and assumes the stance for mating. Through this simple display of chemically-driven behavior, there's no question in the farmer's mind that she's ready for insemination. And no chance of a wasted sample of pedigree boar sperm. But what about humans? Are we really prone to such basic chemical communication? Surely we're above all this.
ACTOR 1: Ugh, what's this? "Instant sex appeal; you can get it in a bottle."
ACTOR 2: What?
ACTOR 1: "Pheromone Sex Scent"; "women cannot resist this powerful love smell. Scientifically distilled from mystical African orchids."
NARRATOR: Here at [? Warwick ?] University's chemo-reception labs, Steve [? Antall ?] and his colleagues have been investigating the effects of chemicals on human behavior, via the sense of smell.
STEVE [? ANTALL ?]: Over the last few years we've been trying to make sense of the cortical electrical activity of the brain, the EEG. And we've been interested in looking at the compounds such as androstenone, which is very intriguing, as far as we are concerned. Apart from being a so-called sex pheromone, it has the property that some people can't smell it, about 46%. About 25% of remainders don't like it, and the remaining 25% find it pleasant. So it's a very intriguing compound.
NARRATOR: On the blotter is androstenone. So just what do people make of it?
TESTER 1: I think it's rather unpleasant, it smells a little of stale body odor to me.
TESTER 2: Yeah, a kind of sweet fragrance, pleasant, actually it smells a bit like flowers in the garden.
TESTER 3: Oh no, I don't like it. It smells like something out of a field.
NARRATOR: Psychologists have been able to show these chemicals really do have effects on our brain. Wearing glasses and earplugs, she's sensorily deprived. Although her sense of smell is as acute as ever. She's attached to an EEG machine which monitors her brain waves. So what's the effect of the male pheromone, androstenone? For some, it seems the brain does have an automatic response to the pheromone. The red cluster in the EEG indicates major changes in brain activity when the pheromone is smelt. But these chemicals work on an ancient sense, and they produce effects on behavior unconsciously.
If the male pheromone is sprayed on a mask, and the mask is worn by women, then women will tend to mark pictures of men as more attractive than if they wore an untreated mask. So it seems that unconscious or not, pheromones can have a real effect. Oh, and men's pheromones? What do the sows think? It turns out men's pheromones are almost the same, chemically speaking, as that of the male pig.
When she's at her most fertile, she's ready for insemination. A quick spray of an artificial form of the pheromone across her nose, and she automatically stands still and assumes the stance for mating. Through this simple display of chemically-driven behavior, there's no question in the farmer's mind that she's ready for insemination. And no chance of a wasted sample of pedigree boar sperm. But what about humans? Are we really prone to such basic chemical communication? Surely we're above all this.
ACTOR 1: Ugh, what's this? "Instant sex appeal; you can get it in a bottle."
ACTOR 2: What?
ACTOR 1: "Pheromone Sex Scent"; "women cannot resist this powerful love smell. Scientifically distilled from mystical African orchids."
NARRATOR: Here at [? Warwick ?] University's chemo-reception labs, Steve [? Antall ?] and his colleagues have been investigating the effects of chemicals on human behavior, via the sense of smell.
STEVE [? ANTALL ?]: Over the last few years we've been trying to make sense of the cortical electrical activity of the brain, the EEG. And we've been interested in looking at the compounds such as androstenone, which is very intriguing, as far as we are concerned. Apart from being a so-called sex pheromone, it has the property that some people can't smell it, about 46%. About 25% of remainders don't like it, and the remaining 25% find it pleasant. So it's a very intriguing compound.
NARRATOR: On the blotter is androstenone. So just what do people make of it?
TESTER 1: I think it's rather unpleasant, it smells a little of stale body odor to me.
TESTER 2: Yeah, a kind of sweet fragrance, pleasant, actually it smells a bit like flowers in the garden.
TESTER 3: Oh no, I don't like it. It smells like something out of a field.
NARRATOR: Psychologists have been able to show these chemicals really do have effects on our brain. Wearing glasses and earplugs, she's sensorily deprived. Although her sense of smell is as acute as ever. She's attached to an EEG machine which monitors her brain waves. So what's the effect of the male pheromone, androstenone? For some, it seems the brain does have an automatic response to the pheromone. The red cluster in the EEG indicates major changes in brain activity when the pheromone is smelt. But these chemicals work on an ancient sense, and they produce effects on behavior unconsciously.
If the male pheromone is sprayed on a mask, and the mask is worn by women, then women will tend to mark pictures of men as more attractive than if they wore an untreated mask. So it seems that unconscious or not, pheromones can have a real effect. Oh, and men's pheromones? What do the sows think? It turns out men's pheromones are almost the same, chemically speaking, as that of the male pig.