Essentials Essentials

May 1, 2025

Essentials: How Smell, Taste & Pheromones Shape Behavior

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In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explore how your sense of smell (olfaction), taste, and chemical sensing influence memory, alertness, focus, and even communication between people.

I explain how these senses help us detect chemicals in the environment and respond to a variety of environmental cues. I discuss the connection between the olfactory system and cognitive performance, and I provide practical tools to enhance learning, sensory function, and brain health. Additionally, I examine how chemical signals exchanged between people subtly influence emotions, biology, and social bonds.

Articles

Human Tears Contain a Chemosignal (Science)
Human non-olfactory cognition phase-locked with inhalation (Nature Human Behaviour)
Olfactory Dysfunction in Traumatic Brain Injury: the Role of Neurogenesis (Current Allergy and Asthma Reports)
Menstrual Synchrony and Suppression (Nature)
A social chemosignaling function for human handshaking (eLife)

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

Essentials: Protocols to Improve Vision & Eyesight

People Mentioned

Noam Sobel: professor of neurobiology, Weizmann Institute ofScience

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00:00:00 Huberman Lab Essentials; Smell & Taste
00:02:04 Tears, Biological Response & Communication
00:05:05 Smell, Innate vs Learned Response, Memory
00:08:31 Accessory Olfactory Pathway, Pheromones, Vandenbergh effect
00:10:41 Smell & Alertness, Smelling Salts, Tool: Nasal Breathing & Learning
00:14:06 Tool: Increase Sense of Smell; Brain Health, Olfactory Neurons
00:16:54 Traumatic Brain Injury & Olfactory Dysfunction
00:19:07 Smell, Alertness, Smelling Salts, Tool: Peppermint
00:21:15 Taste Modalities & Functions; Taste & Digestive System
00:27:30 Pheromones, Coolidge Effect, Humans & Chemical Communication
00:33:34 Recap & Key Takeaways

This transcript is currently under human review and may contain errors. The fully reviewed version will be posted as soon as it is available.

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Huberman Lab Essentials

How Smell, Taste & Pheromone-Like Chemicals Control You

Huberman Lab Essentials are short episodes focused on essential science and protocol takeaways from past full-length Huberman Lab episodes.

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