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| DATE | 2006-05-09 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] OK - got it...
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Pheromones Point to Sexual Orientation 05.09.06, 12:00 AM ET
TUESDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- Lesbians react differently to the
powerful sexual chemicals called pheromones than heterosexual women do,
a new Swedish study finds.
However, lesbians don't respond to pheromones in exactly the same way
as heterosexual men do, said study author Dr. Ivanka Savic, an associate
professor of clinical neuroscience at the Stockholm Brain Institute.
"The data suggest that there is a difference between male and female
sexuality," said Savic, who, with her colleagues, examined the brains of
12 lesbian women, using positron emission tomography (PET), to evaluate
their brains' responses to potential sex pheromones.
The new work builds on previous research by Savic and her colleagues,
in which they found the same brain region -- the anterior hypothalamus
-- was activated in homosexual men and heterosexual women when exposed
to the progesterone derivative 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND). AND is
found in human sweat, and occurs in concentrations 10 times higher in
men than in women. But the anterior hypothalamus region in the brains
of heterosexual men was activated in response to the female pheromone
estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol (EST), the researchers also found. EST
is an estrogen-like substance, found in the urine of pregnant women.
The hypothalamus regulates metabolic process and links the nervous system
to the endocrine system by secreting brain hormones. It also responds
to odor stimuli, including pheromones.
When Savic's team looked at the brain activity of the 12 lesbian women,
it found the lesbians responded to both compounds in a similar way. And
they processed them in a way more like heterosexual men than heterosexual
women. But the relationship to the opposite sex was not as strong as the
researchers found it to be in a previous study between homosexual men and
heterosexual women. This lends support to the idea, the researchers said,
that AND and EST are pheromones involved in sexual preferences. And it
lends credence to the theory that homosexuality is different in men than
in women, the researchers said.
The findings appear in the week's issue of the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
Savic's group also found that in contrast to the heterosexual women
they studied, the lesbian women processed the AND pheromone by the
olfactory network, not the anterior hypothalamus; when they smelled the
EST pheromone, they partly shared activation of the anterior hypothalamus
with the heterosexual men studied.
Larger populations need to be studied, Savic said. When asked if
her research suggests that programs to change sexuality would not be
effective, she said: "We have no proof, but I anticipate in the majority
of people these programs will not work."
Others debate the meaning of the new research.
"It certainly suggests biologic processes are at play," said Brian
Mustanski, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at
the University of Illinois at Chicago. "And they certainly could be
intersecting with some sort of environmental effects."
The new research suggests that "female sexuality is quite different than
male sexuality," he said.
The research suggests that "sexual preference is associated with the
brain response," said Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of
psychology and fellow for psychology and public policy at Grove City
College in Grove City, Pa. "Lesbian women don't show the same pattern of
[brain] activation in response to the pheromones."
While he finds it interesting that different parts of the brain responded
differently in the study, "how those differences get there this says
nothing about," he added. Whether the women were born that way or learned
the behavior, he said, is beyond the scope of this research.
More information
The Council for Responsible Genetics can tell you more about genes and
sexual orientation.
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