Citation

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, Uebi T, Ozaki M, Sobel N. Sci. Adv. 2021; 7(47): eabg1530.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, American Association for the Advancement of Science)

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.abg1530

PMID

34797713

Abstract

In terrestrial mammals, body volatiles can effectively trigger or block conspecific aggression. Here, we tested whether hexadecanal (HEX), a human body volatile implicated as a mammalian-wide social chemosignal, affects human aggression. Using validated behavioral paradigms, we observed a marked 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 behavior: 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 behavior: increasing connectivity in men but decreasing connectivity in women. These findings implicate sex-specific social chemosignaling at the mechanistic heart of human aggressive behavior.

Language: en