Auditory imagery

Auditory imagery is a form of mental imagery that is used to organize and analyze sounds when there is no external auditory stimulus present. This form of imagery is broken up into a couple of auditory modalities such as verbal imagery or musical imagery. This modality of mental imagery differs from other sensory images such as motor imagery or visual imagery. The vividness and detail of auditory imagery can vary from person-to-person depending on their background and condition of their brain. Through all of the research developed to understand auditory imagery behavioral neuroscientists have found that the auditory images developed in subject’s minds are generated in real time and consist of fairly precise information about quantifiable auditory properties as well as melodic and harmonic relationships. These studies have been able to recently gain confirmation and recognition due to the arrival of Positron emission tomography and fMRI scans that can confirm a physiological and psychological correlation.

The accuracy of tempo within an auditory image usually suffers when recalled however the consistency of a person’s perception of tempo is preserved. When surveying subject’s auditory imagery that their sense of tempo usually stays within 8% of the original tempo heard in a song that the subject heard at some point in the past. This was shown by having subjects compare the pitch of two words in a song. For instance, people can sing through “Jingle Bells” in their head and determine if there is a difference in pitch between the word ‘Snow’ and ‘Sleigh’. Experiments like this have shown it takes longer to compare the pitches of two words if the space between the two words is larger. Therefore the tempo structure of the melody is preserved in the auditory image. However, if someone had musical training then the person has more flexibility in his or her auditory imagery tempo representations.

Humans retain a relatively strong auditory image for details in pitch, which can be improved with musical training. The development of cultivating an auditory image with absolute pitch, which is being able to determine a note upon hearing a sound, however is dependent on childhood musical training and genetic factors. People are able to improve their discrimination of pitch; however, they cannot improve their detection. Auditory image pitch detection studies have shown that response time decreases when judging two high pitches as opposed to judging two low pitches.

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