Abstract

Working Memory (WM), a brain system that provides temporary storage and manipulation of information, is fundamental to language and music processing. However it has been mainly studied under the aspect of language. We compared WM for verbal and tonal stimuli using fMRI, and additionally explored the effect of musical expertise on the neural correlates of WM for tonal stimuli. Furthermore, in a behavioural experiment WM for pitch, timbre and words was investigated, and the WM processes of maintenance and manipulation were compared.

The influence of speech and language on Long-Term Memory (LTM) of auditory material was investigated in a behavioural study. Specifically, it was asked whether humans can store long-term representations of sounds that can be neither repeated nor labeled. Our results indicate that LTM for auditory stimuli is strongly influenced by its potential association with speech and language.