Crossmodal Correspondence between Pitch Height and Olfactory Categories

To date, not all crossmodal correspondences can be fully explained by statistical, semantic, linguistic or hedonic accounts. It has been hypothesised that the crossmodal correspondence between odours and auditory pitch may subtend a structural basis and originate in neural mechanisms intrinsic to the general organisation of sensory experience. Here we show that the same olfactory categories that have been shown to give rise to a vertical stimulus-response compatibility effect (SRC) are systematically associated with high and low tones, suggesting access to a common vertical spatial representation. The investigation of this type of crossmodal correspondence could help further our understanding of how we experience music and more generally of the architecture of our cognitive system, by identifying possible structural determinants underlying crossmodal correspondences