My Pheromones Made Me Do It!
Science may finally have an explanation for the ever-alluring (but frequently infuriating) chemistry. Not standard-issue chemistry. Chemistry. The kind of chemistry that requires no goggles and no white coat (although, if that’s your thing, no judgment here). The just. can’t. help. it. chemistry. That phenomenon known to humans everywhere as “butterflies” - but to Bambi as “twitterpation” - has a fascinating scientific explanation. Today, dear readers, we’re talking about sexual attraction in the name of science. Welcome to Healthbolt: truly, we suffer.
Let’s get busy:
The discovery of pheromones in insects in 1959 and subsequent theories about smell and sexual attraction in humans has never been fully understood - or conclusively proven. But a secret cranial nerve may hold the explanation.
Pictures of the human brain never show this nerve. Textbooks don’t discuss it. Science students busily chipping away at cadaverous heads rarely learn about it. It’s called Nerve Zero, because one through 12 were already discovered and had entered the scientific vocabulary by the time a researcher named Gustav Fritsch discovered it in 1878. (It’s so delicate that it usually gets scraped away before anybody even notices.) But Nerve Zero may be the conduit for the chemical sexual messages we call pheromones. Then again, it may simply be a useless body part akin to the appendix, coccyx, wisdom teeth, or male uterus (oh yes, gentlemen, you have one!).
Scientific American Mind, the source of the most recent exploration of this fascinating topic, asks: “Vomeronasal organ in a mouse transmits sexual signals to the brain. In humans the organ is vestigial. Could Nerve Zero provide a similar function?”
Nerve Zero hasn’t been studied much, and researchers were ready to write off Nerve Zero altogether until a recent investigation published in SAMind revealed a stunning discovery. (A little lesson: cranial nerves, of which Nerve Zero is one, are different from spinal nerves. These are the nerves responsible for our senses. Nerve Zero may be an evolutionary relic or it may be a sense we just haven’t figured out yet: the sex sense.) Pheromones don’t always “smell”, so it’s entirely possible that these molecules are detected by Nerve Zero without your conscious brain being any the wiser. Studies of rodents and whales have shown that Nerve Zero releases powerful sex hormones much in the same way as the pituitary gland.
It’s not a far-fetched conclusion to venture that pheromones may help us find “better” mates, genetically speaking, and also help prevent attraction to members of your own gene pool. In fact, there’s growing evidence that these chemical messages may even affect estrus, fertility, pregnancy, and the onset of puberty.
From an evolutionary perspective, “chemistry” may be a very smart thing, guiding you to the best possible mate for reproduction…but not necessarily happily ever after! In everyday life, of course, sexual chemistry can be disastrous. Darn that evolution! It doesn’t care if the bad boy or wild girl can’t be brought home to mama - after all, your pheromones may know something you don’t. That said, don’t go blaming your pheromones for any “To hell with it!” antics. Nothing on this earth lasts but honesty.
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6 opinions for My Pheromones Made Me Do It!
GW
Aug 14, 2007 at 8:44 am
I’m greatly sorry to have to informify you that you’re fired. Y’all have a great blog but that last photographic disrespectified me too far and you should learn that disrespect has limits.
Mikeachim
Aug 14, 2007 at 8:54 am
Nerve Zero. Sounds very scientific indeed.
What I’m now wondering this this: is there a function in the brain for engaging love/lust based not on outside-produced chemicals, but purely from voluntary/involuntary personal reaction? Can someone convince themself (vol. / inv.) into falling in love? Can the sight and the sound of someone - where chemicals can’t be transmitted body to body - engage such reactions?
If so - all very interesting within the context of the Internet.
Not that I’m convinced Internet dating is necessarily a good thing (Google keywords: Adelaide man, kidnap, Mali).
Sara
Aug 14, 2007 at 9:25 am
Mikeachim,
Well, I don’t know if you can “convince” yourself to fall in love, though I bet plenty of us have tried. But there are many different sex, love and “feel good” hormones. In long term relationships, different hormones come in to play that are just as great as the initial hormones we feel when we’re falling for someone - but great in a different way (yes, the old cuddle hormone comes out to play). Want me to write more about this soon?
:)
Sara
Aug 14, 2007 at 9:29 am
And funny you ask about the internet dating - that same issue of SciAm had a big expose on that very topic. Apparently internet dating is even less successful and more rife with dishonesty than real life dating. That particular issue was full of incredible articles - it’s worth the 7 bucks to get the pdf.
Mikeachim
Aug 14, 2007 at 10:54 am
An interesting topic, certainly, and I’d love to know more. I remember reading something recently on the long-term relationship hormonal changes, but the specifics escape me…..
As for internet dating: I’m interested in the sociological side of it, how it’s skewing relationship norms in upcoming generations who use and rely on their online presence more and more, and invest in online relationships in a way that is quite bizarre (but then, that’s the Net: it’s possible for two people at opposite corners of the globe who can talk to each other for hours every day, real-time…it’s a strange thing if you think back to where we were 20 years ago).
I’ll hunt down the SciAm pdf soon - bookmarked. Thanks.
As for the practicalities: not my kettle of fish, thanks. I’d rather get together with someone by being captured by Others and flung in a cage with a machine that dispenses fish-shaped biscuits (photo at top) than date somebody using the ‘Net. I prefer the face to face method.
So to speak.
Meghann
Aug 14, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Screw pheromones. Viggo Mortenson made me do it!
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