Brain development in mammals has been proposed to be promoted by successful adaptations to the social complexity as well as to the social and non-social chemical environment. Therefore, the communication via chemosensory signals might have been and might still be a phylogenetically ancient communication channel transmitting evolutionary significant information. In humans, the neuronal underpinnings of the processing of social chemosignals have been investigated in relation to kin recognition, mate choice, the reproductive state and emotional contagion. These studies reveal that human chemosignals are probably not processed within olfactory brain areas but through neuronal relays responsible for the processing of social information. It is concluded that the processing of human social chemosignals resembles the processing of social signals originating from other modalities, except that human social chemosignals are usually communicated without the allocation of attentional resources, that is below the threshold of consciousness. Deviances in the processing of human social chemosignals might be related to the development and maintenance of mental disorders.

中文翻译：

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人脑对体味信号的处理。

已经提出通过成功适应社会复杂性以及社会和非社会化学环境来促进哺乳动物的大脑发育。因此，通过化学感应信号进行的通信可能已经并且可能仍然是一种系统发育古老的通信渠道，传递进化上的重要信息。在人类中，社会化学信号处理的神经元基础已经在亲属识别、配偶选择、生殖状态和情绪传染方面进行了研究。这些研究表明，人类化学信号可能不是在嗅觉大脑区域内进行处理，而是通过负责处理社会信息的神经元中继进行处理。得出的结论是，人类社会化学信号的处理类似于源自其他方式的社会信号的处理，除了人类社会化学信号通常在没有注意资源分配的情况下进行交流，即低于意识阈值。人类社会化学信号处理的偏差可能与精神障碍的发展和维持有关。