Auditory working memory

This chapter reviews behavioral and neuroimaging fndings on: 1. The comparison between verbal and tonal working memory (WM) 2. The infuence of musical training 3. The role of sound mimicry and auditory memory 4. The infuence of long-term memory (LTM) on auditory WM performance, i. e., the efect of strategy use on auditory WM. Whereas the core structures of the brain, namely Broca’s area, the premotor cortex, and the inferior parietal lobule, show a substantial overlap, results in musicians suggest that there are also different subcomponents involved during verbal and tonal WM. If confrmed, these results indicate that musicians develop either independent tonal and phonological loops or unique processing strategies that allow novel interactive use of the WM systems. We furthermore present and discuss data that provide substantial support for the hypothesis that motor-related processes assist auditory WM, and as a result we propose a strong link between sound mimicry and auditory WM.