For Fighters, Success May Come Down to Smell - 1:36 PM We always
remember the good fights, where two brawlers — partially blinded
by the hazy waterfall of sweat and blood that runs down their
faces — unleash flurries of punches in a last attempt at victory
mere seconds before the final bell sounds. That’s because
competition pushes our physical and mental abilities to the
limit, but increasing evidence now shows that hormones are the
missing link between these feats of body and mind. One
particular group of hormones released from the body selectively
triggers our sense of smell. These pheromones cause the brain to
process body odors differently from other smells. Instead of
simply activating the olfactory bulb — the group of neurons that
integrate smell — body odors also trigger the emotional and
attentional circuits in the peripheral areas of the brain. Now,
Bettina Pause’s lab at the Germany’s University of Dusseldorf
has uncovered evidence that which cluster of neurons are
activated by the body odors depen