Neurons in the neocortex exhibit spontaneous spiking activity in the absence of external stimuli, but the origin and functions of this activity remain uncertain. Here, we show that spontaneous spiking is also prominent in a sensory paleocortex, the primary olfactory (piriform) cortex of mice. In the absence of applied odors, piriform neurons exhibit spontaneous firing at mean rates that vary systematically among neuronal classes. This activity requires the participation of NMDA receptors and is entirely driven by bottom-up spontaneous input from the olfactory bulb. Odor stimulation produces two types of spatially dispersed, odor-distinctive patterns of responses in piriform cortex layer 2 principal cells: Approximately 15% of cells are excited by odor, and another approximately 15% have their spontaneous activity suppressed. Our results show that, by allowing odor-evoked suppression as well as excitation, the responsiveness of piriform neurons is at least twofold less sparse than currently believed. Hence, by enabling bidirectional changes in spiking around an elevated baseline, spontaneous activity in the piriform cortex extends the dynamic range of odor representation and enriches the coding space for the representation of complex olfactory stimuli.T he brain remains intensely active even under conditions when overt external stimuli are absent (1). At first glance this behavior can seem puzzling. Pyramidal neurons in primary sensory neocortex, for example, typically fire spontaneously at approximately 1 Hz when the relevant stimuli are not present (2), raising the possibility that this background activity is noise that must be mitigated by signal averaging (3). On the other hand, spontaneous cortical activity is often structured (4) and can reflect the global state of the animal (5), suggesting that it is not simply an impediment but may serve a useful computational role. Indeed, such activity may be important for gating sensory inputs (4, 6), establishing and maintaining sensory maps (7-9), and extending the dynamic range of sensory-evoked responses (10, 11). The significance of spontaneous activity is also supported by theoretical studies showing that it emerges naturally from balanced neural networks with desirable information-processing characteristics (9, 12).Given that spontaneous spiking is likely to be a key element of cortical function, it is important to study its prevalence and properties in different cortical areas. The piriform cortex (PC) is a sensory paleocortex in mammals that is critical for recognizing and remembering odors (13-17). The PC offers a number of advantages for the study of neural information processing, including a simple trilaminar architecture and well-defined afferent input from the olfactory bulb (OB) (16, 17). As a phylogenetically "old" structure, the PC is also likely to express canonical cortical circuits that have been conserved across evolution (18). Spontaneous spiking has been reported in the PC of rodents breathing odor-free air (19-23), but these studies used unit r...