The Great Pheromone Myth

Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9347-6
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 242 mm, Gewicht: 625 g

Mammalian pheromones, audiomones, visuomones, and snarks—Richard Doty argues that they all belong in the same category: objects of imagination.

For more than 50 years, researchers—including many prominent scientists—have identified pheromones as the triggers for a wide range of mammalian behaviors and endocrine responses. In this provocative book, renowned olfaction expert Richard L. Doty rejects this idea and states bluntly that, in contrast to insects, mammals do not have pheromones.

Doty systematically debunks the claims and conclusions of studies that purport to reveal the existence of mammalian pheromones. He demonstrates that there is no generally accepted scientific definition of what constitutes a mammalian pheromone and that attempts to divide stimuli and complex behaviors into pheromonal and nonpheromonal categories have primarily failed. Doty's controversial assertion belies a continued fascination with the pheromone concept, numerous claims of its chemical isolation, and what he sees as the wasted expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars by industry and government.

The Great Pheromone Myth directly challenges ideas about the role chemicals play in mammalian behavior and reproductive processes. It is a must-have reference for biologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and readers interested in animal behavior, ecology, and evolution.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Doty, Richard L

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Evolutionsbiologie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Tierethologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
1. Introduction
2. What Is a Mammalian Pheromone?
3. Mammals Are Not Insects
4. Scent Marking
5. The Elusive Snarks
Case Studies of Nonhuman Mammalian: "Releasing" Pheromones
6. The Elusive Snarks
Case Studies of Nonhuman Mammalian: "Priming" Pheromones
7. Human Pheromones
8. Implications
Notes
References
Name Index
Subject Index

Über Autor(innen)

Doty, Richard L
Richard L. Doty is a professor and director of the Smell and Taste Center at the University of Pennsylvania, inventor of the widely used UPSIT test for assessing smell function, and author or editor of over 350 scientific publications and books, including the Handbook of Olfaction and Gustation, Taste and Smell in Health and Disease, and, most recently, The Neurology of Olfaction, coauthored with Christopher Hawkes.