The scientific principles detailed in this journal article (full text is free) apply across species and explain how pheromones work. The article is very technical but may be of interest to other researchers.

Cross-Species Affective Neuroscience Decoding of the Primal Affective Experiences of Humans and Related Animals by Jaak Panksepp

Thanks again JV! I especially like this part, I think I'll consider this categorization in my database for pheromone research :

Brain scientists can evoke powerful emotional responses by localized ESB applied to distinct brain regions, similar across all mammalian species ever tested. At least 7 types of emotional arousal can be so evoked, and we refer to the underlying systems with a special nomenclature—SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF and PLAY.

Do you see these "emotional arousals" as being directly applicable to the range of pheromone and chemoreception effects, or would you use a different nomenclature for a base "pallete" of effects?

(09-11-2011 9:25 PM)2Soon2Care Wrote:  Do you see these "emotional arousals" as being directly applicable to the range of pheromone and chemoreception effects, or would you use a different nomenclature for a base "pallete" of effects?

I will initially agree that these 7 types of arousal are directly applicable, and reserve my final answer until after I have more critically considered the implications. My hesitation is based on Panksepp's failure to consider pheromones in his approach to cross-species affective neuroscience. This failure seems inconsistent with the fact that we have both received the same Human Ethology award for our first-author status publications with co-authors. It begs the question of why he does not link food odors and pheromones to SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF and PLAY. Perhaps he has not considered doing so, but he may have a reason for not making the connection between pheromones and categories of emotions so closely represented in non-human animals. He is already out on an academic limb because most psychologists and psychiatrists are not familiar with socioaffective neuroscience. If he were to claim that pheromones are responsible for this range of behavioral affects, like I have been provoked to do, he might be going beyond the limits of academic tolerance. But I'm relatively certain you also recognize that pheromones are a natural source of ESB via their transduction from chemical to electrical signals. How could they not be responsible for the same affects that Panksepp attributes to ESB, which are outside cortical control?

well we had a nice full moon until the rain started here! No amore unfortunately...

I'd love to see some of the PET scans or fMRI scans 3D-animated comparing the ESB in animals (and humans if it has been done) with pheromone exposure, I am wondering if the patterns would show similarities? Such research has got to be expensive.
I wonder if injektilo is able to get access to the kind of equipment to do an imaging study like this?