Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.09.29.318287v1?rss=1 Authors: Mishor, E., Amir, D., Weiss, T., Honigstein, D., Weissbrod, A., Livne, E., Gorodisky, L., Karagach, S., Ravia, A., Snitz, K., Karawani, D., Zirler, R., Weissgross, R., soroka, T., Endevelt-Shapira, Y., Agron, S., Rozenkrantz, L., Reshef, N., Furman-Haran, E., Breer, H., Strotmann, J., Sobel, N. Abstract: Terrestrial mammals use pheromones to effectively trigger or block conspecific aggression. Here we tested whether hexadecanal (HEX), a human body-volatile implicated as a mammalian-wide social odor, impacts human aggression. Using validated behavioral paradigms, we observed a remarkable dissociation: sniffing HEX blocked aggression in men, but triggered aggression in women. Next, using functional brain imaging, we uncovered a pattern of brain activity mirroring behaviour: In both men and women, HEX increased activity in the left angular gyrus, an area implicated in perception of social cues. Hex then modulated functional connectivity between the angular gyrus and a brain network implicated in social appraisal (temporal pole) and aggressive execution (amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex) in a sex-dependent manner consistent with behaviour: increasing connectivity in men, but decreasing connectivity in women. These findings implicate HEX as a human pheromone, whose sex-specific brain processing is at the mechanistic heart of human aggressive behavior. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info