gay men respond differently to pheromones

I read this on Yahoo news

Gay men's brains respond differently from those of heterosexual males when exposed to a sexual stimulus, researchers have found. The homosexual men's brains responded more like those of women when the men sniffed a chemical from the male hormone testosterone.
"It is one more piece of evidence ... that is showing that sexual orientation is not all learned," said Sandra Witelson, an expert on brain anatomy and sexual orientation at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

Witelson, who was not part of the research team, said the findings clearly show a biological involvement in sexual orientation.

The study, published in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was done by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

They exposed heterosexual men and women and homosexual men to chemicals derived from male and female sex hormones.

These chemicals are thought to be pheromones — molecules known to trigger responses such as defense and sex in many animals.

Whether humans respond to pheromones has been debated, although in 2000 American researchers reported finding a gene that they believe directs a human pheromone receptor in the nose.

The Swedish study was one of a series looking at whether parts of the brain involved in reproduction differ in response to odors and pheromones, lead researcher Ivanka Savic said.

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, 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 they sniffed smells like cedar or lavender, all of the subjects' brains reacted only in the olfactory region that handles smells.

But when confronted by a chemical from testosterone, the male hormone, portions of the brains active in sexual activity were activated in straight women and in gay men, but not in straight men, the researchers found.

The response in gay men and straight women was concentrated in the hypothalamus with a maximum in the preoptic area that is active in hormonal and sensory responses necessary for sexual behavior, the researchers said.

And when estrogen, the female hormone was used, there was only a response in the olfactory portion of the brains of straight women. Homosexual men had their primary response also in the olfactory area, with a very small reaction in the hypothalamus, while heterosexual men responded strongly in the reproductive region of the brain.

Savic said the group is also doing a study involving homosexual women but those results are not yet complete.

In a separate study looking at people's response to the body odors of others, researchers in Philadelphia found sharp differences between gay and straight men and women.

"Our findings support the contention that gender preference has a biological component that is reflected in both the production of different body odors and in the perception of and response to body odors," said neuroscientist Charles Wysocki, who led the study.



In particular, he said, finding differences in body odors between gay and straight individuals indicates a physical difference.

It's hard to see how a simple choice to be gay or lesbian would influence the production of body odor, he said.

Wysocki's team at the Monell Chemical Senses Center studied the response of 82 heterosexual and homosexual men and heterosexual and homosexual women to the odors of underarm sweat collected from 24 donors of varied gender and sexual orientation.

They found that gay men differed from heterosexual men and women and from lesbian women, both in terms of which body odors gay men preferred and how their own body odors were regarded by the other groups.

Gay men preferred odors from gay men, while odors from gay men were the least preferred by heterosexual men and women and by lesbian women in the study. Their findings, released Monday, are to be published in the journal Psychological Science in September. The Swedish research was funded by the Swedish Medical Research Council, the Karolinska Institute and the Magnus Bergvall Foundation. Wysocki's research was supported by the Monell Center.

 

hmmm
do you think anyone politically important will pay any attention to this?

 

I'm anxious for the reports on homosexual women.

 

I'm very curious about the bisexual women's reports are. Actually, I'd appreciate it if they did a report on me as I don't feel my attraction is really very gender-based at all.

 

Is it me or this study smells funny ?

ok NEXT !!!

 

I hate to sound nitpicky, but I have to ask: Where were the bisexual men in this study?

Why is it that in researching whether genetics or other natural causes lie at the root of sexual orientation, nobody bothers to even mention bisexuals, let alone study bisexuals?

As a bi male, I, for one, am fed up with this.

-- Skeeter

 

Yeah hey
I'm feeling a little left out, confused

not to mention bewildered

and oh.... ummmm ... alone? I don't see myself fitting into any of these categories. Plus, which line up to I go to for tree-lovers (literally)?

 

Just make up your mind, and you'll fit right in into this study


:sunglasse

 

B.S., B.S. and more B.S.

You need to get over this B.S. about bisexuals "not making up their minds" about whether to be gay or straight.

We're here. We're bi. We love both men AND women. And we insist on being who we are on our own terms.

GET USED TO IT!

--Skeeter

 

Meanwhile you still haven't picked a camp...

:H

teehee, just having fun with you

 

Although this data seems be very inconclusive and will probably need much more time before any real conclusions can be made; I’m happy that these sorts of studies are being conducted. It can really lead to better understandings of ourselves and others. Proof of genetic/biological factors in the least will dispel confusion as to whether sexuality is chosen or not. Hopefully though this information won’t ever be used against those of minority sexualities in any way, which considering some countries viewpoints is a real concern.

 

ack; you mean like.. say we can tell by genetics of babies what their sexual orientation will be... some countries might kill all babies that are a certain percentage homosexual?

 

There's a rather provocative cover story about this subject in the latest issue of the Advocate.

The most likely outcome is that this research will be used to try to sell all colognes and perfumes and other products to gay men. It seems like we're more of a niche to market to than a community of people.

 

I agree with that. However I'm not some rich gay yuppie or status seeker, so most of the "gay" marketing in the Advocate etc. turns me off.

I do have to wonder just how much of a "community" do we really have? It seems that most of the time we're really just one more group that's out for ourselves.

 

This article in the Advocate is actually a bit behind. Time Magazine did a story on this study in their May 23rd, 2005 issue. The article was titled "The Scent of a Man." Both articles have interesting little scientific tidbits that aren't mentioned in the other article, but they are basically similar.

The study seems perfectly reasonable to me, despite the exclusion of bisexuals. This study does expand our knoweldge as to the biological factors of human sexuality, and for that reason it should be read and understood by others.