Dr. Noam Sobel: How Smells Influence Our Hormones, Health & Behavior | Huberman Lab Podcast

In this episode, my guest is Noam Sobel, PhD, professor of neurobiology in the department of brain sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Dr. Sobel explains his lab’s research on the biological mechanisms of smell (“olfaction”) and how sensing odorants and chemicals in our environment impacts human behavior, cognition, social connections, and hormones. He explains how smell is a crucial component of “social sensing” and how we use olfaction when meeting new people to determine things about their physiology and psychology, and he explains how this impacts friendships and romantic partners. He explains how smell influences emotions, hormone levels, memories and the relationship between breathing and autonomic homeostasis. He describes how smell-based screening tests can aid disease diagnosis and explains his lab’s work on digitization of smell — which may soon allow online communication to include “sending of odors” via the internet. Dr. Sobel’s work illustrates how sensitive human olfaction is and how it drives much of our biology and behavior.

#HubermanLab #Science #Smell

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Dr. Noam Sobel
Lab website: https://www.weizmann.ac.il/brain-sciences/worg
Lab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/odorspaceWORG
Publications: https://www.weizmann.ac.il/brain-sciences/worg/publications
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LabWorg

Articles
The Age of Olfactory Bulb Neurons in Humans: https://bit.ly/41NMjb6
The Privileged Brain Representation of First Olfactory Associations: https://bit.ly/3LGEePP
Mechanisms of scent-tracking in humans: https://go.nature.com/41Sm03w
Measuring and Characterizing the Human Nasal Cycle: https://bit.ly/44dqGmi
Human non-olfactory cognition phase-locked with inhalation: https://go.nature.com/44iPIQQ
A social chemosignaling function for human handshaking: https://bit.ly/3Lo5kK6
There is chemistry in social chemistry: https://bit.ly/41TVIhq
MHC-dependent mate preferences in humans: https://bit.ly/41SbgCc
An Exteroceptive Block to Pregnancy in the Mouse: https://go.nature.com/3VnxRnN
Fear-Related Chemosignals Modulate Recognition of Fear in Ambiguous Facial Expressions: https://bit.ly/3NqAPpD
Sniffing the human body volatile hexadecanal blocks aggression in men but triggers aggression in women: https://bit.ly/3oQ6NBv
Menstrual Synchrony and Suppression: https://go.nature.com/3LRF9xf
Regulation of ovulation by human pheromones: https://go.nature.com/44jODbt
Human Tears Contain a Chemosignal: https://bit.ly/41Qmkjr
Why Only Humans Shed Emotional Tears: https://bit.ly/41W71pl
Revisiting the revisit: added evidence for a social chemosignal in human emotional tears: https://bit.ly/44dygNJ
Increase of tear volume in dogs after reunion with owners is mediated by oxytocin: https://bit.ly/41W73gX
An olfactory self-test effectively screens for COVID-19: https://go.nature.com/3Vj6z1S

Other Resources
Joachim Löw video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOstSv7SrRU
Osmo: https://osmo.ai
Odor Space: https://odorspace.weizmann.ac.il

Timestamps
00:00:00 Dr. Noam Sobel
00:03:46 Sponsors: ROKA, Thesis, Helix Sleep
00:06:46 Olfaction Circuits (Smell)
00:14:49 Loss & Regeneration of Smell, Illness
00:21:39 Brain Processing of Smell
00:24:40 Smell & Memories
00:27:52 Sponsor: AG1 (Athletic Greens)
00:29:07 Humans & Odor Tracking
00:39:25 The Alternating Nasal Cycle & Autonomic Nervous System
00:48:18 Cognitive Processing & Breathing
00:54:47 Neurodegenerative Diseases & Olfaction
01:00:12 Congenital Anosmia
01:05:01 Sponsor: InsideTracker
01:06:19 Handshaking, Sharing Chemicals & Social Sensing
01:15:07 Smelling Ourselves & Smelling Others
01:22:02 Odors & Romantic Attraction
01:24:58 Vomeronasal Organ, “Bruce Effect” & Miscarriage
01:40:20 Social Chemo-Signals, Fear
01:50:26 Chemo-Signaling, Aggression & Offspring
02:03:57 Menstrual Cycle Synchronization
02:12:11 Sweat, Tears, Emotions & Testosterone
02:27:46 Science Politics
02:37:54 Food Odors & Nutritional Value
02:45:34 Human Perception & Odorant Similarity
02:52:12 Digitizing Smell, COVID-19 & Smell
03:05:50 Medical Diagnostic Future & Olfaction Digitization
03:10:55 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter

Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac – https://www.blabacphoto.com

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