MONDAY, January 12, (News Locale) – Strong male body odour is supposed to be a turn on for women. A new study now says that women can decode male intentions as far as sex is concerned by smell the so-called "sexual perspiration."

Researchers at Rice University conducted this study on female volunteers who were asked to respond to the sweat collected on arm pads when males were watching arousing films. The researchers also collected normal sweat on similar pads and asked 19 female volunteers to smell these pads.

At the same time, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tests were conducted on the female brains to asses their response to human sexual sweat. Denise Chen and her colleagues at Rice University report that while the women smelled the sexual sweat specific areas of the brain involved in emotion and smell were activated.

These areas called orbitofrontal cortex and the right fusiform cortex are involved in emotional perception in humans. The details of the study appear in the December 31 of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Earlier studies have also indicated that the presence of pheromones in the underarm sweat of a man attract women. These pheromones are odorless and have a relaxing effect on women. They are also responsible for the release of luteinizing hormone, which plays an important role in regulating menstruation in women.

Underarm odor is generally frowned upon in the society. It is touted as the biggest turn off for women and hence men have turned to expensive deodorants and fragrances to combat the same. However as the above study suggests, your natural fragrance may be more than enough to let females decipher if a man's intentions are honorable or not!