The potentially functional gene, called V1RL1, subsequently was found in 11 out of 11 randomly chosen people from varying ethnic backgrounds, researchers said. While rodents and other creatures essentially are reactive animals that depend heavily on pheromones for behavioral cues, humans use their larger brains to rely more on judgment and complex sensory cues, such as vision. But in humans, V1RL1 may very well be the sole functioning gene in the family. It must be very important if it has outlived all of its predecessors. Scientists aren't sure what happened to the other 99 genes.
Nerves connect it to parts of the brain involved in reactions rather than cognition.
In humans, the organ appears in embryos with its nerve cells extending into the developing brain. For several weeks, it serves as a pathway for hormones vital to sexual development and maturity. However, the VNO in humans shrinks and stops working before birth. Researchers have long suspected that humans communicate with pheromones. But how pheromones are produced and how they are detected across a room, or even greater distances, is poorly understood.