TY - JOUR T1 - Smelling a Single Component of Male Sweat Alters Levels of Cortisol in Women JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 1261 LP - 1265 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4430-06.2007 VL - 27 IS - 6 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 Y1 - 2007/02/07 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/6/1261.abstract N2 - 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. ER -