Olfactory hormonal signals for human behavior: can you smell ovulation and pregnancy?

人类行为的嗅觉荷尔蒙信号：你能闻到排卵和怀孕的味道吗？

• 批准号: 460476439
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Natalya Chechko
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Klinik für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Psychosomatik
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/460476439?language=en
• 关键词: Olfactory; hormonal; signals; human; behavior

In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we will apply a translational research approach to investigate whether female chemical signals can mediate sexual availability and fertility in humans. In the animal kingdom, the successful detection of ovulation and pregnancy based on female body odor provides an evolutionary advantage in mate choice. In humans, it could be assumed that sexual selection is influenced in a similar way if men but also women could recognize from the body odor of the females whether they are ovulating or pregnant and could adapt their behavior accordingly. The proposed fMRI study will investigate whether the body odors of ovulating and pregnant women have a direct influence on heterosexual men and heterosexual (ovulating and menstruating) women. To this end, two fMRI experiments with visual stimuli will be conducted to investigate the basal effect of body odors on the evaluation of photographs of women's faces and to determine whether an increased level of arousal provoked by visual erotic stimuli is modulated by body odors and whether the evaluation of erotic photographs of women is altered. In addition, the underlying brain activity during exposure to body odors will be investigated while simultaneously assessing the photographs.In a pilot study conducted with heterosexual men, the results suggest that the detection of sexual availability activates the male brain regions associated with facial processing and rewarding/motivation, while the perception of pregnancy activates a region responsible for empathy and prosocial behavior. Thus, it can be concluded that this evolutionary mechanism of perceiving a woman's reproductive status through the body odor likely biases men toward paying more attention to ovulating women. In the proposed study, these results will be replicated and validated by including heterosexual women and the extended fMRI paradigm for sexual arousal.

在这项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中，我们将采用转化研究方法来研究女性化学信号是否可以调节人类的性可用性和生育能力。在动物王国中，基于雌性体臭的排卵和怀孕的成功检测提供了配偶选择的进化优势。在人类中，如果男性和女性都能从女性的体味中识别出她们是处于排卵期还是怀孕期，并相应地调整自己的行为，那么可以假设性选择也会以类似的方式受到影响。拟议的fMRI研究将调查排卵期和孕妇的体味是否对异性恋男性和异性恋（排卵期和经期）女性有直接影响。为此，将进行两个视觉刺激的功能磁共振成像实验，以调查体味对女性面部照片评价的基本影响，并确定体味是否会调节视觉色情刺激引起的觉醒水平的增加，以及对女性色情照片的评价是否会改变。此外，在评估照片的同时，还将调查暴露于体味时潜在的大脑活动。在一项针对异性恋男性的初步研究中，结果表明，对性的感知激活了男性大脑中与面部处理和奖励/动机相关的区域，而对怀孕的感知则激活了负责同理心和亲社会行为的区域。因此，我们可以得出结论，这种通过体味来感知女性生殖状况的进化机制可能会使男性更加关注排卵期的女性。在拟议的研究中，这些结果将通过包括异性恋女性和扩展的fMRI性唤起范式来复制和验证。