The smell of men’s sweat can tell women if men are sexually attracted to them, according to a study from Rice University.
In the study the sweat from two groups of men, one group first exposed to pornography, was introduced to women to 19 women in their 20s.
Rice University, introduced two types of male sweat to 19 women in their 20s.
Functional magnetic resonance imagery was used to detect the brains response to the perspiration.
The imagery proved that the right orbitofrontal cortex, right fusiform cortex, and right hypothalamus respond to airborne natural human sexual sweat.
The paper provided neural evidence that socioemotional meanings, including the sexual ones, are conveyed in the human sweat.
The idea for chemosensory communication is perhaps not new.
In 2007 The Journal of Neuroscience published research from the University of California at Berkeley.
Then head researcher a post-doctoral fellow Claire Wyart found for the first time that a change in women’s hormonal levels were induced by sniffing an identified compound of male sweat.
Of course, Freud found the smell of perspiration could alter a womans cycle early in the 20th century. In the Bible the Shulamite Maiden speaks of her lover as a sachet of Myrrh between her breasts and Cleopatra was reputed to have seduced Mark Anthony with perfumery.
The Smell Report published by the Social Issues Research Center Web site recognized that “although the male pheromone androstenol has been shown to be attractive to women men.s use of pheromone-based scents to attract women may not have the desired effect” especially in a crowded room.
It suggested that a relaxing or pleasant scent may do more psychologically for a male to relax and be himself.
