*sniff sniff* Smells…noisy?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Is there a link between smell and sound? Enter Diego Hernandez and team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
They trained mice to associate high-pitched SOUNDS with WATER rewards, and fruity SMELLS with NO reward. When the mice learned the pattern — SURPRISE! — the rules flipped.
Researchers monitored brain signals connecting sound and smell as they were disrupted. And? Mice struggled to adapt to the new rules!
This shows our senses are connected — disrupting one affects how we process another. Smell doesn’t just detect odors; it helps the brain interpret and adjust to sounds. Our senses constantly work together, shaping how we experience and respond to the world.
Smell ya later? More like hear ya later!
Reference: Hernandez, D.E., Ciuparu, A., Garcia da Silva, P. et al. Fast updating feedback from piriform cortex to the olfactory bulb relays multimodal identity and reward contingency signals during rule-reversal. Nature Communications, 16 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56023-5