Novel approach for understanding the neural mechanisms of auditory-motor control: Pitch regulation by finger force

Music performance and speech production require neural circuits to integrate auditory information and motor commands to achieve rapid and accurate control of sound properties. This article proposes a novel approach for investigating neural substrates related to audiomotor integration. An experiment examined the brain activities involved in sensorimotor integration in a simplified audiomotor task: pitch regulation using finger-pinching force. The brain activities of the participants were measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they were performing the task. Two additional tasks were performed: an auditory-only task in which subjects listened to sound stimuli without any motor action and a motor-only task where they applied their finger force to the sensor in the absence of auditory feedback. The fMRI results showed the brain activities related to the online pitch regulation in the dorsal premotor cortex (dPMC), planum temporale (PT), primary auditory cortex, and part of the midbrain. The involvement of dPMC and PT was consistent with findings in previous studies on other audiomotor systems, implying that these regions appeared to be important for connecting the auditory feedback to motor actions.