Study Finds Gay Men Respond Differently to Pheremones
Wed. May 11, 2005 12:00 AM by GayWebMonkey.com
Washington, D.C. -
Swedish researchers say that the sexual area of a gay man's brain works a lot like that of a woman when exposed to a particular stimulus. In an experiment, men and heterosexual women sniffed a chemical from the male hormone testosterone. The homosexual men's brains responded differently from those of heterosexual males and in a similar way to the women's brains.
“It is one more piece of evidence ... that is showing that sexual orientation is not all learned,” Sandra Witelson, an expert on brain anatomy and sexual orientation at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, told the Washington Post.
Witelson, who was not part of the research team, said the findings clearly show a biological involvement in sexual orientation.
The study’s results were published yesterday in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” and was conducted by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
According to the Post, researchers exposed heterosexual men and women and homosexual men to chemicals derived from male and female sex hormones. The chemicals, thought to be pheremones, are known to trigger responses such as defense and sex in many animals.
Human response to pheremones has been widely debated in the sciences, although in 2000, American researchers reported finding a gene that they believe directs a human pheromone receptor in the nose.
The brains of different groups responded similarly to ordinary odors such as lavender, but differed in their response to the chemicals thought to be pheromones, lead researcher Ivanka Savic said.
The Swedish researchers divided 36 subjects into three groups — heterosexual men, heterosexual women and homosexual men. They studied the brain response to sniffing the chemicals, using PET scans. All the subjects were healthy, unmedicated, right-handed and HIV-negative.
When the subjects were given scents including cedar and lavender, all of their brains reacted only in the olfactory region that handles smells.
But when confronted by a chemical from testosterone, portions of the brain active in sexual activity were activated in straight women and in gay men, but not in straight men, the researchers found.
The Swedish research team was funded by the Swedish Medical Research Council, the Karolinska Institute and the Magnus Bergvall Foundation.
Written By Ross von Metzke
“It is one more piece of evidence ... that is showing that sexual orientation is not all learned,” Sandra Witelson, an expert on brain anatomy and sexual orientation at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, told the Washington Post.
Witelson, who was not part of the research team, said the findings clearly show a biological involvement in sexual orientation.
The study’s results were published yesterday in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” and was conducted by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
According to the Post, researchers exposed heterosexual men and women and homosexual men to chemicals derived from male and female sex hormones. The chemicals, thought to be pheremones, are known to trigger responses such as defense and sex in many animals.
Human response to pheremones has been widely debated in the sciences, although in 2000, American researchers reported finding a gene that they believe directs a human pheromone receptor in the nose.
The brains of different groups responded similarly to ordinary odors such as lavender, but differed in their response to the chemicals thought to be pheromones, lead researcher Ivanka Savic said.
The Swedish researchers divided 36 subjects into three groups — heterosexual men, heterosexual women and homosexual men. They studied the brain response to sniffing the chemicals, using PET scans. All the subjects were healthy, unmedicated, right-handed and HIV-negative.
When the subjects were given scents including cedar and lavender, all of their brains reacted only in the olfactory region that handles smells.
But when confronted by a chemical from testosterone, portions of the brain active in sexual activity were activated in straight women and in gay men, but not in straight men, the researchers found.
The Swedish research team was funded by the Swedish Medical Research Council, the Karolinska Institute and the Magnus Bergvall Foundation.
Written By Ross von Metzke
Article provided in partnership with GayWebMonkey.com.