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Approved For Release ZO PTTENT TAR ROP 96-00788R001300020001-6 ST-CS~01-169-72 July 1972 PART VIT ODOR AND THE ALTERING OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR SECTION I - BACKGROUND 1. (WU) Man has just begun to research the areas of odor and olfactory phenomena. An increasing amount of evidence implicates olfactory mechanisms in communication between the sexes in prosi- mians and also in their social organization, but to date there is only scant information that olfaction plays a similar role in higher primates (247). 2. (U) Do pheromones operate also in people? There is no evidence that they do not, and some evidence that they do. Many psychiatrists have believed that odor is among the "cues" which operate in the transference situation, while schizophrenic patients, who are receptive to unorthodox ideas and have their sensory gain-control turned right up, claim to "smell" hostility. Some psychiatrists themselves have long claimed to be able to "smell" schizophrenia-—- the substance involved has now been identified as trans-—3-methy lhexanoic acid. Olfactory sensitivity varies greatly in humans--a perfumer can smell the differences between skin and hair colors, and many unskilled observers have noted the unique, pleasant skin odor of redheaded women (248). 3. (U) Pheromones control ant behavior and much insect mating. An artificial pheromone (gyplure) can be synthesized to attract gypsy moth males into an insecticidal trap. They are also wide- spread in mammals. Some mammalian odors, like the n-butylmercaptan of the skunk, or the labeling of territory with urine, are straight- forward signals. These influence behavior in the same way as a display of threat, dominance or attraction. The action of a true pheromone is more direct; it is a signal, but its action is more like that of a hormone--the distinction is not total, but it is perceptible, in that many pheromonal odors, at least in mammals, have a chemical shape rather like that of a steroid molecule, and might have béen derived from one. 4. (U) Insects take advantage of their keen, specialized olfactory organs (usually the antennae) to guide them to food, the opposite sex, or mark the place to lay eggs. Sense of smell is particularly 87 CONTROLLED DISSEMINATION NO DISSEMINATION ABROAD (This page is UNCLASSIFIED) Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6