title: Chemosensory communication of gender through two human steroids in a sexually dimorphic manner.
abstract: Recent studies have suggested the existence of human sex pheromones, with particular interest in two human steroids: androstadienone (androsta-4,16,-dien-3-one) and estratetraenol (estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol). The current study takes a critical step to test the qualification of the two steroids as sex pheromones by examining whether they communicate gender information in a sex-specific manner. By using dynamic point-light displays that portray the gaits of walkers whose gender is digitally morphed from male to female [1, 2], we show that smelling androstadienone systematically biases heterosexual females, but not males, toward perceiving the walkers as more masculine. By contrast, smelling estratetraenol systematically biases heterosexual males, but not females, toward perceiving the walkers as more feminine. Homosexual males exhibit a response pattern akin to that of heterosexual females, whereas bisexual or homosexual females fall in between heterosexual males and females. These effects are obtained despite that the olfactory stimuli are not explicitly discriminable. The results provide the first direct evidence that the two human steroids communicate opposite gender information that is differentially effective to the two sex groups based on their sexual orientation. Moreover, they demonstrate that human visual gender perception draws on subconscious chemosensory biological cues, an effect that has been hitherto unsuspected.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Electronic address: zhouw@psych.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Kepu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000730:Androstadienes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004963:Estrenes / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D049049:Pheromones, Human / Q000378:metabolism*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012724:Sex Attractants / Q000378:metabolism*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012903:Smell; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000730:Androstadienes; D004963:Estrenes; D049049:Pheromones, Human; D012724:Sex Attractants; C021674:1,3,5,(10),16-estratetraen-3-ol; C003524:4,16-androstadien-3-one