PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Claire Wyart
AU  - Wallace W. Webster
AU  - Jonathan H. Chen
AU  - Sarah R. Wilson
AU  - Andrew McClary
AU  - Rehan M. Khan
AU  - Noam Sobel
TI  - Smelling a Single Component of Male Sweat Alters Levels of Cortisol in Women
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4430-06.2007
DP  - 2007 Feb 07
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 1261--1265
VI  - 27
IP  - 6
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/6/1261.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/6/1261.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2007 Feb 07; 27
AB  - 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.