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MaDomAura -> RE: The Scent of Domination (10/10/2007 2:08:46 AM)
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Smell and Emotion
Why is it that smells can be so evocative and, in some cases, sexually stimulating? The answer has to do with human physiology and psychology.
Among the senses, smell is different from the other four primary senses because it is connected to the part of the brain responsible for emotions and memory. In fact, according to Herz, the olfactory cortex—the part of the brain where smells are processed—was the site from which “the parts of the brain that are responsible for emotional processing, associative learning, basic memory and motivation—the collective structures of the limbic system—evolved from. In other words, the ability to experience and express emotion grew directly out of our brain’s ability to process smell.”
Herz believes the link between emotion and smell is so strong that they’re “functionally the same.” One result of this connection is that once a smell is associated with an emotion or memory, it tends to remain there for a long time. If you come across that odor again, your brain makes the association so quickly that you don’t have to even think about it. It’s almost a reflex.
And first impressions count. Herz says she likes the odor of skunk because she has positive memories associated with her first encounter with the perfume of a skunk: riding in a car through the country on a lovely summer day with her mother. Another example comes from a woman Herz knows who told her she hated the smell of roses because the first time she had smelled them was at her mother’s funeral.
The role of scent in creating memories was demonstrated in an unusual German study published in Science earlier this year. Scientists had subjects play a computerized game in which they memorized the location of playing card pairs. Once a pair’s location was learned, the subjects received a waft of a strong rose scent. Later, when the subjects went to sleep (a time when the brain processes things it has recently learned), the rose scents were again administered. The next day, the rose-scented sleepers performed an average of 11 percentage points better on memory tests of card pair locations. “By presenting the rose odor cues we … enhanced the transfer of these memories into the neocortex,” neuroscientist Jan Born, one of the study’s co-authors, told The New York Times.
Men: Pavlovian Dogs?
Herz says she knows of no scientifically credible research that has looked at specific odors that provoke male sexual response. She ascribes the dearth of scientific research into odors and desire to the fact that there is not enough commercial interest.
“From the point of view of the marketplace, what’s really more of a moneymaker is a fragrance that will make women sexually aroused and interested in men,” she says. “It’s somewhat culturally taken for granted that men are always sexually aroused. The harder part is getting women to be.”
But Hirsch believes that Herz is being unfair to his study and too simplistic in her analysis of why an odor can be sexually arousing. He says his study (which Herz admits she hasn’t seen) is scientifically valid. It was randomized, controlled, and peer-reviewed before being published in three different journals, including the Journal of Neurological and Orthopaedic Medicine and Surgery.
“Sexual arousal is inhibited by all sorts of different things,” Hirsch explains. “By inhibiting those inhibitors [with odors], you can induce sexual arousal. It doesn’t have to be a direct affect.”
He offers several other possible reasons why these food odors increased sexual arousal.
“It could have induced a Pavlovian conditioned response, making men recall their girlfriends and wives,” he says. Or they could have stimulated a part of the brain called the RAS (Reticular Activating System), increasing the men’s alertness and their awareness of sexual cues around them. Odors could also have acted directly on another part of the brain, the septal nucleus, which controls a male’s erection. “There’s a direct anatomic connection between the olfactory bulb at the top of the nose and the septal nucleus. So anatomically it makes some sense.”
The biggest challenge in interpreting the results of his study, Hirsch says, was to find a hypothesis that might explain why food odors were always sexually stimulating to males, when items such as perfume were not. “The best theory we could come up with,” he says, “was evolutionary. That in our distant past our ancestors would congregate at a point of food kill. That’s where they would have had the greatest chance of finding a mate and having successful procreation. So there may have been a selective advantage to have increased penile blood flow in response to the smell of food.”
Sniffing Out What Works for You
Although plenty of potentially arousing scent elixirs exist for men, the trouble is finding the ones that appeal to an individual. It’s a daunting task because the average human nose is capable of distinguishing between 10,000 to 40,000 different odors.
If no universal aroma aphrodisiac can exist, how does one go about finding effective scent triggers?
“I don’t know, other than retrospective self-analysis,” Herz says with a laugh. “You can think of a past sexual experience, or a lover who had a particular fragrance you found exciting, or be aware when you come across an odor you find arousing.”
Another way to discover what odors pique your carnal interests, as well as those of your sweetie, would be to pull on your lab coat, grab some test tubes, and start experimenting. If that doesn’t sound romantic enough, try heading to the bedroom with an armful of fruits, vegetables, candies, cakes and liquors—and anything else you might care to sniff, nibble, or rub.
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