Language enables the acquisition of distinct sensorimotor memories for speech.

Interactions between the context in which a sensorimotor skill is learned and the recall of that memory have been primarily studied in limb movements, but speech production requires movement, and many aspects of speech processing are influenced by task-relevant contextual information. Here, in ecologically valid speech (read sentences), we test whether English-French bilinguals can use the language of production to acquire and recall distinct motor plans for similar speech sounds spanning the production workspace. Participants experienced real-time alterations of auditory feedback while producing interleaved English and French sentences.

Sensorimotor learning during synchronous speech is modulated by the acoustics of the other voice.

This study tested the hypothesis that speaking with other voices can influence sensorimotor predictions of one's own voice. Real-time manipulations of auditory feedback were used to drive sensorimotor adaptation in speech, while participants spoke sentences in synchrony with another voice, a task known to induce implicit imitation (phonetic convergence). The acoustic-phonetic properties of the other voice were manipulated between groups, such that convergence with it would either oppose (incongruent group, n = 15) or align with (congruent group, n = 16) speech motor adaptation.