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The Journal of Neuroscience, February 7, 2007, 27(6):1261-1265; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4430-06.2007

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Brief Communications
Smelling a Single Component of Male Sweat Alters Levels of Cortisol in Women

Claire Wyart,¹ Wallace W. Webster,² Jonathan H. Chen,¹ Sarah R. Wilson,¹ Andrew McClary,¹ Rehan M. Khan,¹ and Noam Sobel^1,3

¹Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, ²Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Oakland, California 94611, and ³Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel

Correspondence should be addressed to Claire Wyart at the above address. Email: clairon{at}berkeley.edu

Rodents use chemosignals to alter endocrine balance in conspecifics. Although responses to human sweat suggest a similar mechanism in humans, no particular component of human sweat capable of altering endocrine balance in conspecifics has yet been isolated and identified. Here, we measured salivary levels of the hormone cortisol in women after smelling pure androstadienone (4,16-androstadien-3-one), a molecule present in the sweat of men that has been suggested as a chemosignal in humans. We found that merely smelling androstadienone maintained significantly higher levels of the hormone cortisol in women. These results suggest that, like rodents, humans can influence the hormonal balance of conspecifics through chemosignals. Critically, this study identified a single component of sweat, androstadienone, as capable of exerting such influence. This result points to a potential role for synthetic human chemosignals in clinical applications.

Key words: pheromones; hormones; chemosignals; human; olfaction; cortisol

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Received Oct. 11, 2006; revised Dec. 6, 2006; accepted Jan. 4, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Claire Wyart at the above address. Email: clairon{at}berkeley.edu

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