Birdsong neuroscience and the evolutionary substrates of learned vocalization

Matthew H Davenport; Erich D Jarvis

doi:10.1016/j.tins.2022.11.005

Birdsong neuroscience and the evolutionary substrates of learned vocalization

Trends Neurosci. 2023 Feb;46(2):97-99. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2022.11.005. Epub 2022 Dec 12.

Authors

Matthew H Davenport¹, Erich D Jarvis²

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Language Neurogenetics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: mdavenport@rockefeller.edu.
² Laboratory of Language Neurogenetics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD, USA. Electronic address: ejarvis@rockefeller.edu.

PMID: 36517289
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2022.11.005

Abstract

Oscine songbirds have served as a model for speech and its evolution since the discovery that birds in this clade learn to produce their songs by imitating conspecifics. We discuss the initial characterization of neural substrates for song learning and highlight several avenues of neuroscientific, phylogenetic, and genomic research that have advanced our understanding of how songbirds evolved to produce this behavior.

Keywords: brain evolution; sex differences; song; speech; spoken language.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Learning
Phylogeny
Songbirds*
Speech
Vocalization, Animal*

Grants and funding

HHMI/Howard Hughes Medical Institute/United States