In this article, I explore human pheromone behavior.
Human Vomeronasal Organ
The old school of science had stated that the human VNO rarely existed in adults. Researchers Moran and Jafek had proved otherwise. “We couldn’t believe it when we saw the VNO in every instance,” says Moran. “We found that there is not only an opening but an organ behind it. And, we found that there are some very interesting-looking cells in it. And, it looked like a sense organ.”
The human VNO system consists of two tiny organs that sit deep inside both nostrils. Although in some people you can see the VNO opening, in most cases it must be magnified to be visible. That may explain why the VNO had previously only been observed on rare occasions.
With the human VNO confirmed, the task turned toward finding the link between the organ and the brain. This is the freeway on which pheromonal messages can travel. That freeway is the Vomeronasal nerve.
Larry Stensaas and his colleagues looked again to the fetal brain for answers. Earlier research had concluded that the fetus has a vomeronasal nerve that connects the VNO to the accessory olfactory bulb. However, the nerve was thought to exist only during the early months of gestation. Before moving on, Stensaas investigated the probability that the VNO maintains its link to the hypothalamus into adulthood. Subsequent studies have indeed shown this to be the case.
Moran and Jafek also discovered that the VNO lies separate from the olfactory epithelium inside them.
Parallel Systems
Eventually, they realized that while the two systems are separate and work independently, they run parallel in the following way:
VNO receptor -> vomeronasal nerve -> accessory olfactory bulb of the brain Olfactory receptor -> olfactory nerve to olfactory bulb of the brain.
When Berliner found out about Moran’s micrographs, he contacted him with an irresistible proposal: Come work with me. Moran accepted, joining the team of respected scientists that Berliner had assembled for his journey to the sixth sense.
The pieces of the pheromone puzzle were slowly shifting into place. David Berliner and his fellow scientists now seek to find out if the human VNO responded to pheromones. Berliner would turn to the contents of his flask, his confidence boosted by David Moran’s elegant micrographs of the VNO.
VNO Research
A neurophysiologist whose accent is flowered with the influence of his native Uruguay, Dr. Louis Monti-Bloch works in the psychiatry department of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Monti-Bloch, designed and conducted a series of double-blind studies to determine how the VNO reacts to pheromones.
Measuring Pheromones In The VNO
To perform the experiments, Monti-Bloch developed a mini-probe. It’s a device that delivers pheromones and other control substances directly to the VNO. And it records resulting electrical activity on a computer.
The mini-probe detects subtle changes in the surface voltage of VNO cells. And it illustrates that activity with the help of an electrovomerogram (EVG).
A Monti-Bloch needed to devise a method of delivering the pheromones. The pheromones that would prevent them from leaking into the adjacent olfactory system; should this happen, the scientists would be unable to obtain accurate VNO test results.
He surrounded a hair-thin wire electrode with two concentric plastic coverings. This ensured the substances inside would be delivered where they were supposed to, and not wander into nearby olfactory cells. The device worked beautifully. It delivered test chemicals to the VNO in a micro puff of humidified air mixed with pheromones.
When placed directly on the VNO, the electrode picked up any electrical activity caused by the chemical inputs.
Monti-Bloch could also monitor what the volunteers experienced during the tests. The subjects were awake during all phases of the experiments. They were able to describe how their feelings changed (or didn’t) when certain substances were delivered into their noses.
Monti-Bloch’s test substances were pheromones synthesized in a lab by Clive Jennings-White, his colleague at the University of Utah. Jennings-White had devised a way to duplicate the molecular structures of pheromones derived from skin cell extracts.
Results
One of the keys to the VNO-functionality experiments was differentiating between the sense of smell and the VNO. The scientists were poised to reveal the presence of a sixth sense. And they had to prove that this pheromone-sensing system acted independently of the sense of smell. To do this, they selected a series of strong-smelling olfactory stimulants, including clove oil and cineole.
Monti-Bloch then signed up forty-nine volunteers ranging in age from eighteen to fifty-five. All of whom seemed more than willing to flare their nostrils for science. He outfitted them with electrodes for monitoring galvanic skin.
He also performed psychometric tests to explore pheromonal behavior.
While the volunteers reclined comfortably on exam tables, Monti-Bloch delivered tiny puffs of pheromones into their noses. In all cases, the VNO responded immediately, sending a rapid-fire staccato of electrical activity through the mini-probe. The olfactory cells, meanwhile, showed no response to the odorless pheromones.
Continuing with his experiments, Monti-Bloch delivered puffs of olfactory stimulants into the noses of the volunteers. The olfactory cells zipped into life . . . and the VNO sat quietly. This was clear evidence that the VNO and the olfactory cells do not react to the same substances.
The VNO requires a pheromone to produce electrical activity. While the sense of smell requires a scent molecule to perform its work. What’s remarkable about this experiment is that the VNO responded to picogram quantities of pheromones. A picogram is a millionth of a millionth of a gram – a staggeringly small quantity.
Pheromones Are Sexually Powerful
In general, pheromones are sexually powerful—some are more active in males and others are more active in females. Monti-Bloch found this to be the case with his test pheromones; some had a more pronounced effect on women while others had a more pronounced effect on men.
Specifically, the synthesized pheromone ER-670 shows more activity in men. To put it more simply, women react strongly to male pheromones and men react strongly to female pheromones.
In a later experiment, Monti-Bloch delivered puffs of odorless human pheromones from Berliner’s flask onto single VNO cells. The cells had been harvested from research volunteers and cultivated, in a petri dish. The result stunned him: The single VNO cells fired in reaction to the pheromones but showed no response to odors. This study showed that the VNO contains neurons that matter.
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