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Brain evolution by brain pathway duplication
Open accessAbstract
Understanding the mechanisms of evolution of brain pathways for complex behaviours is still in its infancy. Making further advances requires a deeper understanding of brain homologies, novelties and analogies. It also requires an understanding of how adaptive genetic modifications lead to restructuring of the brain. Recent advances in genomic and molecular biology techniques applied to brain research have provided exciting insights into how complex behaviours are shaped by selection of novel brain pathways and functions of the nervous system. Here, we review and further develop some insights to a new hypothesis on one mechanism that may contribute to nervous system evolution, in particular by brain pathway duplication. Like gene duplication, we propose that whole brain pathways can duplicate and the duplicated pathway diverge to take on new functions. We suggest that one mechanism of brain pathway duplication could be through gene duplication, although other mechanisms are possible. We focus on brain pathways for vocal learning and spoken language in song-learning birds and humans as example systems. This view presents a new framework for future research in our understanding of brain evolution and novel behavioural traits.
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“Second, analyses of brain gene expression profiles strongly suggest that songbirds and parrots independently evolved vocal learning pathways by duplication of preexisting, surrounding motor circuits (57, 58).”
From Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain (2016) · cites this paper as [58]
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“And why do parrots have an additional shell song control system, i.e. have brain structures meant for song even more complex than in songbirds (Chakraborty and Jarvis, 2015)?”
BackgroundA modular circuit architecture coordinates the diversification of courtship strategies in DrosophilaPreprint
Coleman, R. T., Morantte, I., Koreman, G. T., Cheng, M. L., Ding, Y., & Ruta, V. (2023) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/2023.09.16.558080 · Cited by 10
“striatal circuits of songbirds mediating vocal learning have been proposed to evolve via the duplication and diversification of ancestral motor learning circuits (83, 84).”
Introduction to ‘Origin and evolution of the nervous system’
Strausfeld, N. J., & Hirth, F. (2015) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0033 · Cited by 15
Audition and Hemispheric Specialization in Songbirds and New Evidence from Australian Magpies
Kaplan, G. (2017) · Symmetry · doi:10.3390/sym9070099 · Cited by 9
Bridging the fields of cognition and birdsong with corvids
Liao, D. A., Moll, F. W., & Nieder, A. (2025) · Current Opinion in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/j.conb.2024.102965 · Cited by 8
Optimality Pressures toward Lateralization of Complex Brain Functions
Seoane, L. F. (2023) · Physical Review X · doi:10.1103/physrevx.13.031028 · Cited by 5
Vocal babbling in a wild parrot shows life history and endocrine affinities with human infants
Eggleston, R., Viloria, N., Delgado, S., Mata, A., Guerrero, H. Y., Kline, R. J., Beissinger, S., & Berg, K. S. (2022) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.0592 · Cited by 8
Cockatiels sing human music in synchrony with a playback of the melody
Seki, Y. (2021) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0256613 · Cited by 8
Modularity is the Bedrock of Natural and Artificial IntelligencePreprint
Salatiello, A. (2026) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2602.18960 · Cited by 2
“This approach has already led to consolidated theories about the evolution of selected brain modules (Feenders et al., 2008; Chakraborty & Jarvis, 2015; Kebschull et al., 2020) and to increasingly detailed descriptions of the evolutionary origin of the existing modular organization (Cisek, 2019;…”
Vocal repertoire expansion in singing mice by co-opting a conserved midbrain circuit node
Zheng, X. M., Harpole, C. E., Davis, M. B., & Bandyopadhyay, A. (2025) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2025.10.036 · Cited by 9
Unsolved morphogenesis problems and the hidden order
Melkikh, A. V. (2024) · Biosystems · doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2024.105218 · Cited by 7
Chronic recording of cortical activity underlying vocalization in awake minipigs
Palma, M., Khoshnevis, M., Lion, M., Zenga, C., Kefs, S., Fallegger, F., Schiavone, G., Flandin, I. G., Lacour, S. P., & Yvert, B. (2021) · Journal of Neuroscience Methods · doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109427 · Cited by 14
Alcamí, P., Totagera, S., Sohnius‐Wilhelmi, N., Leitner, S., Grothe, B., Frankl‐Vilches, C., & Gahr, M. L. (2021) · Biology · doi:10.3390/biology10111099 · Cited by 6
Fate of Duplicated Neural Structures
Seoane, L. F. (2020) · Entropy · doi:10.3390/e22090928 · Cited by 7
Selective expansion of motor cortical projections in the evolution of vocal noveltyPreprint
Isko, E. C., Harpole, C. E., Zheng, X. M., Zhan, H., Davis, M. B., Zador, A. M., & Banerjee, A. (2024) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2024.09.13.612752 · Cited by 4
“Beyond such changes in brain architecture, other influential models predict that modified long-range connectivity among existing brain regions can lead to functional di-vergences [9, 24–26].”
BackgroundOrganizational Conservation and Flexibility in the Evolution of Birdsong and Avian Motor Control
Colquitt, B. M. (2022) · Brain Behavior and Evolution · doi:10.1159/000525019 · Cited by 8
“…output nucleus, sits at the medial end of AId and has similar gene expression and connectivity as its neighbor, suggesting that RA is a specialized motor control region derived from ancestral motor circuitry [Feenders et al., 2008; Chakraborty and Jarvis, 2015; Jarvis, 2019; Nevue et al., 2020].”
BackgroundThe role of sex chromosomes and sex hormones in vocal learning systems.
Choe, H., & Jarvis, E. (2021) · Hormones and Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.104978 · Cited by 6
Self-citationCognitive instincts versus cognitive gadgets: A fallacy
Roige, A., & Carruthers, P. (2019) · Mind & Language · doi:10.1111/mila.12251 · Cited by 6
“For notice that copying-and-repurposing is quite common in biological evolution (Barrett, 2012; Chakraborty & Jarvis, 2015; Kaas, 1989; Marcus, 2004).”
BackgroundGenome-resolved biogeography of Phaeocystales, cosmopolitan bloom-forming algae
Füssy, Z., Lampe, R. H., Arrigo, K. R., Barry, K., Brisbin, M. M., Brussaard, C. P. D., Decelle, J., de Vargas, C., DiTullio, G. R., Elbourne, L. D. H., et al. (2025) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-025-63565-1 · Cited by 10
Hickok, G. S. (2024) · BMC Neuroscience · doi:10.1186/s12868-024-00868-x · Cited by 4
“…don’t exhibit BPS, is that parrots and humans have a more complex vocal learning system, and (ii) that this complexity is related to the added ability of parrots and humans to control supra-syringeal/laryngeal vocal organs, which seems to involve a dual neural control system in both species [2, 3].”
BackgroundExploring Anatomical Links Between the Crow's Nidopallium Caudolaterale and Its Song System
Moll, F. W., Kersten, Y., Erdle, S., & Nieder, A. (2024) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1002/cne.70028 · Cited by 5
“…anatomical position and connectivity, several related hypotheses on the evolutionary origin of the song system have suggested that HVC might be a specialized part of NCL that could have diverged from NCL via pathway duplication (Farries 2001; Feenders et al. 2008; Chakraborty and Jarvis 2015).”
The Molecular Basis of Differentiation Wave Activity in Embryogenesis
Alicea, B., Bastani, S., Gordon, N. K., Crawford-Young, S. J., & Gordon, R. (2024) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/2024.06.04.597397 · Cited by 5
Vocal Learning and Songbirds: An Evolutionary Tale of Singing
Erickson, H. M. (2022) · Journal of Singing · doi:10.53830/xhji5745 · Cited by 5
Position-independent emergence of neocortical neuron molecular identity, connectivity and function
Roig‐Puiggros, S., Guyoton, M., Suchkov, D., Fortoul, A., Matteucci, G., Fièvre, S., Panzeri, A., Molochidis, N., Barcellini, F., Maino, E., et al. (2025) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41593-025-02142-7 · Cited by 6
“Structure duplication followed by divergence is a driving force in brain evolution 29,30 and is thought to have underlaid the emergence of basal ganglia and cerebellar circuits 31,32 , bird and human vocal pathways 30,33 and higher-order cortical areas from primary sensory and motor ones 34–36 .”
FinchGPT: a Transformer based language model for birdsong analysis
Kobayashi, K., Matsuzaki, K., Taniguchi, M., Sakaguchi, K., Inui, K., & Abe, K. (2025) · arXiv.org · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.00344 · Cited by 4
“It have been suggested that the brain nuclei of songbirds have analogous regions in human brain with respect to their role in vocal control (Fig 4A) [36,37].”
The emergence of enhanced intelligence in a brain-inspired cognitive architecture
Schneider, H. (2024) · Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fncom.2024.1367712 · Cited by 10
“Genetic and developmental mechanisms have been put forward for the duplication of mammalian brain circuits and their divergence to new functions (e.g., Rakic, 2009; Chakraborty and Jarvis, 2015).”
BackgroundInfluentialThe emergence of compositionality in a brain-inspired cognitive architecture
Schneider, H. (2024) · Cognitive Systems Research · doi:10.1016/j.cogsys.2024.101215 · Cited by 7
Specific expansion of motor cortical projections in a singing mouse
Isko, E. C., Harpole, C. E., Zheng, X. M., Zhan, H., Davis, M. B., Zador, A. M., & Banerjee, A. (2026) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10458-y · Cited by 9
“Such expansion of specific neuronal projections have been proposed to expand behavioural repertoire, such as increased dexterity 23,48 and courtship songs 4 .”
InfluentialRunnqvist, E., & Kell, C. A. (2025) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101573 · Cited by 2
Evolution of Telencephalon Anterior–Posterior Patterning through Core Endogenous Network Bifurcation
Sun, C., Yao, M., Xiong, R., Su, Y., Zhu, B., Chen, Y.-C., & Ao, P. (2024) · Entropy · doi:10.3390/e26080631 · Cited by 3
Metadata
- Authors
- Chakraborty, M., & Jarvis, E. D.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chakraborty, Mukta
- Jarvis, Erich D.
- ORCID
- Jarvis, Erich D.
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2015-12-19
- Volume
- 370
- Issue
- 1684
- Pages
- 20150056
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC4650129
- OpenAlex
- W2193504960
- Cited by
- 150
- References
- 189
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 2.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DukeSpace (Duke University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Keywords
- brain evolution, gene duplication, vocal learning, song learning, spoken language, complex behavior, nervous system evolution
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Birds, Brain, Biological Evolution, Humans, Neural Pathways, Vocalization, Animal
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