TY - JOUR T1 - Smelling Sounds: Olfactory–Auditory Sensory Convergence in the Olfactory Tubercle JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 3013 LP - 3021 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6003-09.2010 VL - 30 IS - 8 AU - Daniel W. Wesson AU - Donald A. Wilson Y1 - 2010/02/24 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/8/3013.abstract N2 - Historical and psychophysical literature has demonstrated a perceptual interplay between olfactory and auditory stimuli—the neural mechanisms of which are not understood. Here, we report novel findings revealing that the early olfactory code is subjected to auditory cross-modal influences. In vivo extracellular recordings from the olfactory tubercle, a trilaminar structure within the basal forebrain, of anesthetized mice revealed that olfactory tubercle single units selectively respond to odors—with 65% of units showing significant odor-evoked activity. Remarkably, 19% of olfactory tubercle single units also showed robust responses to an auditory tone. Furthermore, 29% of single units tested displayed supraadditive or suppressive responses to the simultaneous presentation of odor and tone, suggesting cross-modal modulation. In contrast, olfactory bulb units did not show significant responses to tone presentation nor modulation of odor-evoked activity by tone—suggesting a lack of olfactory–auditory convergence upstream from the olfactory tubercle. Thus, the tubercle presents itself as a source for direct multimodal convergence within an early stage of odor processing and may serve as a seat for psychophysical interactions between smells and sounds. ER -