Pheromone attracts straight women and gay men

Smelling a male pheromone prompts the same brain activity in homosexual men as it does in heterosexual women, a new study has found. It did not excite the sex-related region in the brains of heterosexual males, although an oestrogen-derived compound found in female urine did.

The team observed 36 healthy men and women, who were exposed in turn to AND, the oestrogen-derived compound EST and other odours, including lavender oil, cedar oil, eugenol and butanol.

PET and MRI scans revealed that the ordinary odours activated parts of the brain associated with smelling in all test subjects. But in addition to that activation, AND excited the brain areas associated with sexual behaviour for female and gay male participants, as did the EST for straight men.