Spontaneous motor cortical activity during passive perception of action has been interpreted as a sensorimotor simulation of the observed action. There is currently interest in how sensorimotor simulation can support higher-up cognitive functions, such as memory, but this is relatively unexplored in the auditory domain. In the present study, we examined whether the established memory advantage for vocal melodies over non-vocal melodies is attributable to stronger sensorimotor simulation during perception of vocal relative to non-vocal action. Participants listened to 24 unfamiliar folk melodies presented in vocal or piano timbres. These were encoded during three interference conditions: whispering (vocal-motor interference), tapping (non-vocal motor interference), and no-interference. Afterwards, participants heard the original 24 melodies presented among 24 foils and judged whether melodies were old or new. A vocal-memory advantage was found in the no-interference and tapping conditions; however, the advantage was eliminated in the whispering condition. This suggests that sensorimotor simulation during the perception of vocal melodies is responsible for the observed vocal-memory advantage.

被动感知动作过程中的自发运动皮层活动已被解释为感觉运动模拟观察到的动作。目前人们对感觉运动模拟如何支持更高层次的认知功能（例如记忆）感兴趣，但是在听觉领域尚无人问津。在本研究中，我们检查了相对于非声音旋律而言，声音旋律相对于非声音旋律建立的记忆优势是否归因于较强的感觉运动模拟。参加者聆听了24种陌生的民谣旋律，以声音或钢琴音色呈现。这些是在三种干扰条件下编码的：耳语（发声-电机干扰），敲击（无发声-电机干扰）和无干扰。之后，参与者听到了24个箔纸中最初出现的24种旋律，并判断了旋律是旧的还是新的。在无干扰和轻拍的条件下发现了声音记忆的优势。但是，在耳语状态下，该优势就消失了。这表明在感知声乐旋律期间的感觉运动模拟是所观察到的声乐记忆优势的原因。