SETI public: Humans are birdbrained when learning speech

• Previous message: LARRY KLAES: "SETI public: Molecular rings could shelter Venus bugs"

Humans Are Birdbrained When Learning Speech, Study Hints

John Roach
for National Geographic News
April 29, 2004

Hummingbirds are well known for their ability to flap their wings at an eye-blurring 75 beats or more per second. Less known, perhaps, is the fact that they can learn to sing the hummingbird equivalent of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
Like parrots and sparrows, whales and dolphins, and bats and humans, hummingbirds are part of a select group of animals that possess the ability to imitate and learn sounds-a process known as vocal learning.

Erich Jarvis, a neurobiologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, studies the vocal-learning ability of birds like hummingbirds and zebra finches. His aim: to understand how the brain pathways for vocal learning evolved and work.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0429_040429_vocallearninghtml>

• Previous message: LARRY KLAES: "SETI public: Molecular rings could shelter Venus bugs"

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.6 : Fri Apr 30 2004 - 07:12:00 PDT