RESEARCH ON OLFACTORY PERCEPTION OF BIOLOGICALLY RELEVANT SUBSTANCES IN A SAMPLE OF SCHOOL-CHILDREN, AGED FROM 6 TO 14 YEARS
Authors Franca Ligabue Stricker , Brunetto Chiarelli
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Tags lang_en, pyrroline isovalerianate butyrate, olfaction tests, pheromones, hormone, "biologically relevant" substances, androstandiol, pheromone-like substances
This study is part of an extensive research program on pheromones aiming to analyze in depth and on a wide scale man's olfaction and its ability to distinguish pheromone-like substances either of male and female origin, as well as the evolution of such ability at different physiological stages during his life. Olfaction tests were conducted on a group of 1318 school children (aged 6 to 14 years) by mean of "biologically relevant" substances.
Younger males and females showed the same responses to Pyrroline Isovalerianate Butyrate and to Androstandiol in an high percentage of cases. Response variability gradually increases with aging and this could be explained assuming that sensitivity to biological smells keeps up with their emission or, even more, with hormone development which originates them.
Hormone researches are currently being carried on in order to prove such assumption.