The Role of Auditory and Premotor Cortex in Sensorimotor Transformations

This review first summarizes three functional magnetic resonance imaging studies conducted to elucidate the neural basis for interactions between the auditory and motor systems in the context of musical rhythm perception and production. The second part of the paper discusses these findings in the context of a proposed model for auditory-motor interactions that engage the posterior aspects of the superior temporal gyrus, and the ventral and dorsal premotor cortex. In the last section, we present outstanding issues that encompass topics, such as the role of auditory versus parietal cortex in sensorimotor integration, sensorimotor integration as an emergent property, the role of mirror neurons, and clinical applications.