Nonverbal auditory working memory: Can music indicate the capacity?

• Published in: Brain and cognition 2016-06, Vol.105, p.9-21
• Main Authors: Jeong, Eunju, Ryu, Hokyoung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Auditory Perception - physiology; Female; Functional Laterality - physiology; Hemodynamic responses; Humans; Male; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Music; Nonverbal auditory working memory; Pitch; Pitch Perception - physiology; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared - methods; Test development and validation; Timbre; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0278-2626; 1090-2147
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2016.03.003

•We designed a nonverbal musical WM test with pitch and timbre.•The findings highlighted that behavioral performance was similar between verbal and nonverbal musical sound tests.•Hemodynamic responses were the type specific and showed prefrontal asymmetry in pitch and timbre WM.•Musical sounds, such as pitch and timbre, have a potential as a complementary to the conventional WM tests. Different working memory (WM) mechanisms that underlie words, tones, and timbres have been proposed in previous studies. In this regard, the present study developed a WM test with nonverbal sounds and compared it to the conventional verbal WM test. A total of twenty-five, non-music major, right-handed college students were presented with four different types of sounds (words, syllables, pitches, timbres) that varied from two to eight digits in length. Both accuracy and oxygenated hemoglobin (oxyHb) were measured. The results showed significant effects of number of targets on accuracy and sound type on oxyHb. A further analysis showed prefrontal asymmetry with pitch being processed by the right hemisphere (RH) and timbre by the left hemisphere (LH). These findings suggest a potential for employing musical sounds (i.e., pitch and timbre) as a complementary stimuli for conventional nonverbal WM tests, which can additionally examine its asymmetrical roles in the prefrontal regions.