A new study from Rice University says socioemotional meanings, including sexual ones, are conveyed in human sweat and that women are able to smell and recognize them. That essentially means that humans can communicate through smell, much like animals do.

The press release says, "Denise Chen, assistant professor of psychology at Rice, looked at how the brains of female volunteers processed and encoded the smell of sexual sweat from men. The results of the experiment indicated the brain recognizes chemosensory communication, including human sexual sweat." The release goes on to say, "Nineteen healthy female subjects inhaled olfactory stimuli from four sources, one of which was sweat gathered from sexually aroused males. The research showed that several parts of the brain are involved in processing the emotional value of the olfactory information."

This kind of report doesn't seem all that surprising, but since this is weight loss season it makes you want to keep your spouse at home instead of watching them head off to the gym.

Labels: commentary, men, sex, study, women