Marriage has been a human tradition for an approximated 4,000 years. It is safe to say that the phrase, “honey, stop worrying about nothing” has probably been around just as long. For some reason, even after all these years of practice, men and women just can’t seem to reach a common wavelength when it comes to intersex communication. Although several issues may contribute to this, one theme that has been apparent in relationships over time is the man not knowing when the woman is upset. We see this documented extensively in novels, films, and even daytime talk shows. “He just doesn’t get how I feel” has become a female catchphrase in the modern relationship. New research from the University of Colorado may have discovered a neurological basis for this dating deal-breaker.
The basic premise of this experiment was to analyze the brain activity of subjects of both genders while they smelled both male and female stress pheromones, chemicals that are secreted by the body to send signals to other members of the same species. To collect human pheromones, a group of volunteers was gathered and their sweat was collected after regular exercise, as well as after being subjected to a mild stressor. Once the pheromones were collected, they were labeled as four groups: female exercise, female fear, male exercise, and male fear.
Once these samples were collected, a new group of sixteen volunteers was recruited, half of which were women. Each volunteer was then asked to smell all four types of sweat, and their brain activity was monitored while they did so using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. Functional MRI scans detect brain activity by looking at blood flow throughout brain regions. When an area of the brain is active, it needs more oxygen to supply it with energy. Since oxygen is carried in the blood, there will be higher levels of blood flow in highly active areas of the brain.
Results indicated that when males and females smelled the stress sweat, they exhibited emotional responses throughout the limbic system, a collection of structures found in the midbrain that control emotion, fear, and smell, among other things. However, although men and women showed equally strong limbic system activation to male stress pheromones, women showed much higher activation than men to female stress pheromones. The difference lied in the right amygdala, a structure of the limbic system found in the right midbrain. It is speculated that amygdala plays a role in memory and emotion, namely learned fears. When women smelled female stress pheromones, they showed much greater activation in their right amygdala than men did.
These findings suggest that men and women process stress pheromones differently, and that there may in fact be a physiological basis for intersex communication difficulties. With that in mind, gentlemen, it may be time to let go of the phrase, “honey, stop worrying about nothing” and replace it with, “honey, whatever you’re projected scent is just isn’t activating my right amygdala enough to elicit a reaction”.
Source: Radulescu, A. R., & Mujica-Parodi, L. R. (2013). Human gender differences in the perception of conspecific alarm chemosensory cues. Plos ONE, 8(7), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068485
