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By Karen Springen
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IT'S WELL KNOWN THAT WOMEN WHO live in close proximity tend to menstruate on the same schedule. No one knows exactly what triggers this intriguing phenomenon, but it has been documented repeatedly in recent decades, and it could have big implications. It may show that humans, like other animals, communicate subconsciously through odorless substances called pheromones. Scientists have known for more than a century that our noses house a tiny structure known asthe vomeronasal organ (VNO). Most have dismissed it as an idle vestige of our evolutionary past, but that consensus is eroding. Some now view the VNO as a sensory organ with its own pathway to the brain. They believe it may affect everything from mood to sex--and though the evidence is still sketchy, entrepreneurs are racing to exploit it.
Pheromones pervade the animal world. They're pollen-like chemicals that, when emitted by one creature, have some effect on other members of the same species. And as the Dutch psychologist Piet Vroon makes clear in his recent book ""Smell: The Secret Seducer'' (226 pages. Farrar, Straus. $23), they can pack a wallop. The pheromones produced by queen bees stall sexual development in other females (who then become workers). Male mice use pheromones to promote the sexual development of nearby females--and, when it's convenient, to induce abortions. The effects are subtler in large mammals but no less remarkable. If a sow or a cow is in heat, a whiff of the pheromones contained in male urine will send her into a mating stance. Conversely, a male rhesus monkey loses libido if you block his VNO.
It's not clear whether humans produce actual pheromones, but our body fluids contain sex-specific chemicals called androstenes and copulines, which can have pheromonelike effects. Researchers have synchronized women's menstrual cycles with those of complete strangers, simply by exposing them regularly to extracts from the strangers' perspiration. Studies have also shown that women have less variable periods if they're routinely exposed to male sweat. And when researchers have sprayed human androstenes on seats in a theater or waiting room, women have become more likely--and men less likely--to sit in them.
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Most experts regard these as hints, not proof, that pheromones affect people. But David Berliner, an anatomist turned entrepreneur, has no doubt. He and his colleagues think they've identified a dozen human pheromones. Since 1994 the California-based Erox Corp. has peddled three of them in pricey perfumes called Realm Men, Realm Women and Inner Realm. Sales topped $20 million last year. The fragrances allegedly ""transcend the five [senses]... and awaken the sixth''--but don't get the wrong idea. The makers say they're not designed to send lewd signals, just to enhance the user's own sense of ""comfort, security, well-being and confidence.''
Do they work? In published studies, Berliner's colleagues have shown that their patented chemicals stimulate the VNO and that people who sniff them in a lab experience a slight drop in heart rate, respiration and body temperature. Whether that translates into anything psycholog-ically meaningful is another matter. Berliner's group claims that participants in an unpublished study felt happier and less tense after sniffing Realm's patented ingredients, but other experts are wary. ""Their findings need to be replicated in other laboratories,'' says Charles Wysocki, a neuroscientist at Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center.
Until that happens, Realm won't revolutionize neuroscience. But it may still shake up the fragrance industry. Erox CEO William Horgan hopes to license the ostensible pheromones for use in everything from fabrics to air fresheners. ""When you're rubbing your nose into a pillowcase,'' he says, ""imagine there's something [soothing] we could impregnate into that pillowcase.'' By all means, imagine. Sweet dreams.
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