Speech is often described as a sequence of units associating linguistic,
sensory and motor representations. Is the connection between these
representations preferentially maintained at a specific level in terms
of a linguistic unit? In the present study, we contrasted the possibility
of a link at the level of the syllable (CV) and the word (CVCV). We
modified the production of the syllable /be/ in French speakers using
an auditory-motor adaptation paradigm that consists of altering the
speakers’ auditory feedback. After stopping the perturbation,
we studied to what extent this modification would transfer to the production
of the disyllabic word /bebe/ and compared it to the after-effect on
/be/.
The results show that changes in /be/ transfer partially to /bebe/.
The partial influence of the somatosensory and motor representations
associated with the syllable on the production of the disyllabic word
suggests that both units may contribute to the specification of the
motor goals in speech sequences. In addition, the transfer occurs to
a larger extent in the first syllable of /bebe/ than in the second
one. It raises new questions about a possible interaction between the
transfer of auditory-motor learning and serial control processes.