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Heterosexual Men and Women Both Show a Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone

The odorous steroid compound 4,16-androstadien-3-one (androstadienone), found in axillary sweat, was previously reported to evoke hypothalamic activation in heterosexual women, but not in heterosexual men. However, subjects were exposed to the pure crystalline form of androstadienone, which raised t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Burke, Sarah M., Veltman, Dick J., Gerber, Johannes, Hummel, Thomas, Bakker, Julie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3397979/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22815889
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040993
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author Burke, Sarah M.
Veltman, Dick J.
Gerber, Johannes
Hummel, Thomas
Bakker, Julie
author_facet Burke, Sarah M.
Veltman, Dick J.
Gerber, Johannes
Hummel, Thomas
Bakker, Julie
author_sort Burke, Sarah M.
collection PubMed
description The odorous steroid compound 4,16-androstadien-3-one (androstadienone), found in axillary sweat, was previously reported to evoke hypothalamic activation in heterosexual women, but not in heterosexual men. However, subjects were exposed to the pure crystalline form of androstadienone, which raised the question whether the observed hypothalamic response is physiologically relevant. Therefore, in the present study, we asked whether sexually dimorphic hypothalamic responses could be measured when subjects were exposed to lower, more physiologically relevant concentrations of androstadienone. A total of 21 women and 16 men, all heterosexual, participated in our functional magnetic resonance imaging study (fMRI). Three different concentrations of androstadienone diluted in propylene glycol (10 mM “high,” 0.1 mM “medium” and 0.001 mM “low”) were delivered to the subjects’ nostrils using a computer-controlled stimulator. When exposed to the “high” androstadienone concentration, women showed stronger hypothalamic activation than men. By contrast, men showed more hypothalamic activation when exposed to the “medium” androstadienone concentrations in comparison to women. Thus, we replicated that smelling the chemo-signal androstadienone elicits a hypothalamic activation. However, this effect does not seem to be gender-specific, because androstadienone activated the hypothalamus in both men and women, suggesting that androstadienone exerts specific effects in heterosexual individuals of both sexes.
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spelling pubmed-33979792012-07-19 Heterosexual Men and Women Both Show a Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone Burke, Sarah M. Veltman, Dick J. Gerber, Johannes Hummel, Thomas Bakker, Julie PLoS One Research Article The odorous steroid compound 4,16-androstadien-3-one (androstadienone), found in axillary sweat, was previously reported to evoke hypothalamic activation in heterosexual women, but not in heterosexual men. However, subjects were exposed to the pure crystalline form of androstadienone, which raised the question whether the observed hypothalamic response is physiologically relevant. Therefore, in the present study, we asked whether sexually dimorphic hypothalamic responses could be measured when subjects were exposed to lower, more physiologically relevant concentrations of androstadienone. A total of 21 women and 16 men, all heterosexual, participated in our functional magnetic resonance imaging study (fMRI). Three different concentrations of androstadienone diluted in propylene glycol (10 mM “high,” 0.1 mM “medium” and 0.001 mM “low”) were delivered to the subjects’ nostrils using a computer-controlled stimulator. When exposed to the “high” androstadienone concentration, women showed stronger hypothalamic activation than men. By contrast, men showed more hypothalamic activation when exposed to the “medium” androstadienone concentrations in comparison to women. Thus, we replicated that smelling the chemo-signal androstadienone elicits a hypothalamic activation. However, this effect does not seem to be gender-specific, because androstadienone activated the hypothalamus in both men and women, suggesting that androstadienone exerts specific effects in heterosexual individuals of both sexes. Public Library of Science 2012-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3397979/ /pubmed/22815889 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040993 Text en Burke et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Burke, Sarah M.
Veltman, Dick J.
Gerber, Johannes
Hummel, Thomas
Bakker, Julie
Heterosexual Men and Women Both Show a Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone
title Heterosexual Men and Women Both Show a Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone
title_full Heterosexual Men and Women Both Show a Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone
title_fullStr Heterosexual Men and Women Both Show a Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone
title_full_unstemmed Heterosexual Men and Women Both Show a Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone
title_short Heterosexual Men and Women Both Show a Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone
title_sort heterosexual men and women both show a hypothalamic response to the chemo-signal androstadienone
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3397979/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22815889
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040993
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