Olfactory Tubercle - Multi-sensory Processes

Multi-sensory Processes

The olfactory tubercle plays a functional role in the integration of olfactory information with extra modal senses. Auditory sensory information may arrive at the olfactory tubercle via networks involving the hippocampus, ventral pallidum or directly from the olfactory cortex, thus showing a possible role of the olfactory tubercle in olfactory auditory sensory integration (Deadwyler, Foster & Hampson 1987). This convergence has been shown to cause the perception of smoud, caused by the interaction between smell and sound. This possibility has been supported by work from Wesson & Wilson (2010) where olfactory tubercle displayed olfactory–auditory convergence.

Retinal projections have also been found in layer II of the olfactory tubercle suggesting that it constitutes a region of olfactory and visual convergence (Mick, Cooper & Magnin 1993). These visual sensory fibers arrive from the retinal ganglion cells. Thus, the olfactory tubercle may play a role in the perception of odors when a visual source is identified.

As far as olfaction is concerned, in vitro data from some studies suggest that the olfactory tubercle units have the functional capability of other olfactory center neurons in processing odor. It has been suggest that the olfactory tubercle may be crucial in determining the source of olfactory information and respond to odor inhalations which are attended to (Zelano et al. 2007).