Pheromones in birds, other mammals, and us

PherX™ currently sponsors misinformation about pheromones available here:

“pheromone Any chemical compound secreted by an organism in minute amounts to elicit a particular reaction from other organisms of the same species. Pheromones are widespread among insects and vertebrates (except birds) and are present in some fungi, slime molds, and algae.”

Caro and Balthazart (2010) state conclusively that “…if we stay with the original definition of pheromones proposed by Karlson and Luscher (see ‘‘Introduction’’), it now seems highly probable, if not established, that such pheromones do exist in birds…. Avian pheromones are probably not a myth; they just need to be investigated.”

For contrast, see Doty RL (2009). He strays far from the original definition and states that “A key element of my thesis is that it is erroneous to infer that a plurality of mammalian behaviors and endocrine responses is uniquely determined in an invariant way by single or small sets of chemical stimuli and to apply a generic and misleading name to the presumptive agents in support of such an inference.”(p. 3)

In the approaches above, a marketer of human pheromone products is unaware of research on avian pheromones, and an olfactory researcher tells us that no human pheromones exist. For information on human pheromones you can trust, keep coming back to Pheromones.com

References:

Caro SP, Balthazart J (2010) Pheromones in birds: myth or reality? J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 196(10): 751-766.

Doty RL (2009) The Great Pheromone Myth: The Johns Hopkins University Press.