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Updated: May 27, 2026
07:52
An Automated System for Sound Localization Testing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners
Published on: March 13, 2026
Olfactory priming leads to faster sound localization.
Valérie La Buissonnière-Ariza1, Johannes Frasnelli, Olivier Collignon
1Centre de Recherche en Neuropsychologie et Cognition (CERNEC), Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada.
Neuroscience Letters
|November 19, 2011
Summary
Olfactory cues significantly enhance auditory localization performance. This study found that smells, independent of trigeminal stimulation, speed up reaction times to sounds.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Sensory Integration
- Cross-modal Plasticity
Background:
- Extensive research exists on cross-modal interactions involving vision, audition, and touch.
- Understanding of chemical senses (olfaction, gustation) interacting with other modalities is limited.
- Investigating olfactory-auditory interactions can reveal novel sensory processing pathways.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the facilitative effects of olfactory stimuli on auditory localization.
- To compare the impact of olfactory cues versus somatosensory cues on auditory performance.
- To determine if trigeminal stimulation influences the olfactory-auditory interaction.
Main Methods:
- A cued auditory localization paradigm was employed with healthy young adults.
- Participants responded to monaural auditory stimuli after unilateral olfactory, mixed olfactory/trigeminal, or somatosensory cues.
- Reaction times to auditory targets were measured under different cueing conditions.
Main Results:
- All cueing conditions (olfactory, mixed, somatosensory) improved auditory localization performance.
- Olfactory cues resulted in significantly shorter reaction times compared to somatosensory cues.
- No significant effect of side-congruency between cues and targets was observed.
Conclusions:
- Odorous cues provide a significant facilitative effect on auditory localization.
- This olfactory-auditory interaction appears independent of trigeminal nerve stimulation.
- Findings suggest unique pathways for chemical sense integration with auditory processing.
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