Pheromone olfactory signals are used to delineate the various types of space and are derived from feces, urine and specialized odor-producing skin glands. Changes in the ability to produce and perce... Pheromone olfactory signals are used to delineate the various types of space and are derived from feces, urine and specialized odor-producing skin glands. Changes in the ability to produce and perceive odors match the animals’ spatial requirements. Although the repelling role of spacing is usually emphasized, its attractive functions are just as important. While it is assumed that odor of occupied space is mainly for communication with conspecics there is pheromonal evidence that it is of importance primarily to the owner of the space itself The distinction between the role played by pheromones in the lives of insects and mammals is emphasized. The uniform reaction of insects to pheromones is rarely seen in mammals, because at a given time a mammalian population consists of behaviorally heterogenous individuals which will never react in the same way to a particular signal. Olfactory marking by mammals of the occupied space preserves the typical pattern of social relationships and is part of the mechanism for self-limitation of the population according to http://hartch25.weebly.com/our-marketing-blog/pheromones-make-attraction-simple As a generality, our knowledge about mammalian pheromones is neither as richly diverse nor as ecologically detailed as that provided by entomologists. Scientists and non-scientists alike have long been aware of the importance of chemical communi- cation in mammals but a reasonably broad research thrust into this area dates only from the early 1960’s. This effort has involved reproductive physiologists, etho- logists, and psychologists; it has not included ecologists, chemists or neurophysiolo-_ gists to nearly as great an extent. As a consequence, our detailed knowledge in this eld can quickly be summarized as largely laboratory animal-oriented, most often set within the framework of laboratory rather than eld ecology, and with an emphasis on behavior and reproductive physiology at the expense of neural media- tion and pheromone chemistry. Regardless of such limitations, real progress has been made and many solid generalities have emerged. For one, mammals apparently do communicate via speci- fic volatile compounds and in a manner satisfying the classic definition of a phero- mone (Kalmus 1964; Regnier 1970). For another, when addressing the subject of pheromones in mammals, we are apparently talking primarily, and possibly exclu- sively, about odors and olfactory reception: There are several possible sensory. No real evidence associating pheromonal function with gustatory processes has yet been forthcoming. The possible importance of the trigeminal and the vomeronasal routes has been inadequately examined. A role for the latter, however, is strongly suggested in some species showing a ‘Flehmen’ response, that is a contraction of the lips, most often elicited when in close sexual association, and which could function to transport materials to the vomeronasal organ (see Eisenberg and Kleiman 1973). Functional participation by the trigeminal innervated area of the nasal epithelium has been suggested by human studies using standard odor tests. The importance of volatile, air-borne pheromone compounds and participation by the olfactory epithelium and bulbs, on the other hand, is more than suggestive; it is unequivocal. By way of a third generality, a dichotomy of mammalian pheromonal function, modelled after entomological constructs, has proven quite useful: i.e. a) signalling pheromones that result in a more or less immediate change in motor activity on the part of the recipient animal; and b) priming pheromones that trigger neuroendocri- ne and A endocrine activity. A response to a signalling pheromone (e.g., a sex attractant), if it does occur, will be behavioral and is most apt to occur shortly after reception of the information. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com Alexander P is a blogger that studies pheromones.