Auditory aspects of auditory imagery

Abstract

Empirical findings from studies on imagery of auditory features (pitch, timbre, loudness, duration, tempo, rhythm) and imagery of auditory objects (musical contour and melody, musical key and harmony, notational -audiation, speech and text, environmental stimuli) are reviewed. Potential individual differences in auditory imagery (involving vividness, auditory hallucination, development, musical ability, training) are considered. It is concluded that auditory imagery (a) preserves many of the structural and temporal properties of auditory information present in auditory (or multisensory or crossmodal) stimuli, (b) can impact subsequent responding by influencing perception or by influencing expectancies regarding subsequent stimuli, (c) involves mechanisms similar to many of those used in auditory perception, and (d) is subserved by many of the same cortical structures as is auditory perception.