The hippocampus is a central hub of the brain with abundant connections to numerous remote structures. However, whether and how hippocampus interacts with the auditory subcortical regions remains unknown. The inferior colliculus (IC), the auditory midbrain, is the first station where the responses selectivity for vocalization is formed. In this auditory fMRI study, we revealed that IC responses to vocalization, but not broadband noise, could be enhanced by dorsal hippocampal inputs initiated optogenetically. Our findings indicate that hippocampus plays a role in midbrain processing of the behaviorally relevant sound, a phenomenon that was unknown previously.
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