title: Do speakers have access to a mental syllabary? ERP comparison of high frequency and novel syllable production.
abstract: The transformation of an abstract phonological code into articulation has been hypothesized to involve the retrieval of stored syllable-sized motor plans. Accordingly, gestural scores for frequently used syllables are retrieved from memory whereas gestural scores for novel and possibly low frequency syllables are assembled on-line. The present study was designed to test this hypothesis. Participants produced disyllabic pseudowords with high frequency, low frequency and non-existent (novel) initial syllables. Behavioral results revealed slower production latencies for novel than for high frequency syllables. Event-related potentials diverged in waveform amplitudes and global topographic patterns between high frequency and low frequency/novel syllables around 170 ms before the onset of articulation. These differences indicate the recruitment of different brain networks during the production of frequent and infrequent/novel syllables, in line with the hypothesis that speakers store syllabic-sized motor programs for frequent syllables and assemble these motor plans on-line for low frequency and novel syllables.
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Bd du Pont d'Arve 42, 1205 Genève, Switzerland. Electronic address: audrey.buerki@unige.ch.
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bürki
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Bd du Pont d'Arve 42, 1205 Genève, Switzerland. Electronic address: pauline.pellet@unige.ch.
authors.forename: Pauline Pellet
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Cheneval
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Bd du Pont d'Arve 42, 1205 Genève, Switzerland. Electronic address: marina.laganaro@unige.ch.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laganaro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ERPs; Language production; Phonetic encoding; Syllables