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Cited by 1,633Animal Vocal Communication and BehaviorPhonetics and Phonology ResearchNeuroscience and Music Perception

Birdsong and human speech: common themes and mechanisms

Doupe, Allison J., Kuhl, Patricia K.·1999·Annual Review of Neuroscience
DOI 10.1146/annurev.neuro.22.1.567
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Abstract

▪ Abstract Human speech and birdsong have numerous parallels. Both humans and songbirds learn their complex vocalizations early in life, exhibiting a strong dependence on hearing the adults they will imitate, as well as themselves as they practice, and a waning of this dependence as they mature. Innate predispositions for perceiving and learning the correct sounds exist in both groups, although more evidence of innate descriptions of species-specific signals exists in songbirds, where numerous species of vocal learners have been compared. Humans also share with songbirds an early phase of learning that is primarily perceptual, which then serves to guide later vocal production. Both humans and songbirds have evolved a complex hierarchy of specialized forebrain areas in which motor and auditory centers interact closely, and which control the lower vocal motor areas also found in nonlearners. In both these vocal learners, however, how auditory feedback of self is processed in these brain areas is surprisingly unclear. Finally, humans and songbirds have similar critical periods for vocal learning, with a much greater ability to learn early in life. In both groups, the capacity for late vocal learning may be decreased by the act of learning itself, as well as by biological factors such as the hormones of puberty. Although some features of birdsong and speech are clearly not analogous, such as the capacity of language for meaning, abstraction, and flexible associations, there are striking similarities in how sensory experience is internalized and used to shape vocal outputs, and how learning is enhanced during a critical period of development. Similar neural mechanisms may therefore be involved.

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Crossref · 10.1146/annurev.neuro.22.1.567

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  • Song learning in birds bears great similarity with speech learning in human infants.

    “It bears great similarity with speech learning in human infants (321,774).”

    From About Sleep's Role in Memory (2013) · cites this paper as [321]

  • Song motor plasticity is reduced after sexual maturation in species that learn one song for life (zebra finches), but in species that learn each season (canaries), plasticity is regulated by seasonal changes in gonadal steroids.

    “Song motor plasticity is reduced after sexual maturation in species that learn one song for life (zebra finches), but in species that learn each season (canaries), plasticity is regulated by seasonal changes in gonadal steroids”

    From Does puberty mark a transition in sensitive periods for plasticity in the associative neocortex? (2017) · cites this paper as Doupe and Kuhl, 1999

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Authors
Doupe, A. J., & Kuhl, P. K.
Affiliations
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
ORCID
Kuhl, Patricia K.
Venue
Annual Review of Neuroscience
Publisher
Annual Reviews
Published
1999-03
Volume
22
Issue
1
Pages
567-631
ISSN
  • 0147-006X (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-4126
DOI
10.1146/annurev.neuro.22.1.567
OpenAlex
W2102224657
Cited by
1,633
References
280
Citations by year
2026: 43 · 2025: 53 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 72 · 2019: 61 · 2018: 83 · 2017: 87 · 2016: 64 · 2015: 75 · 2014: 100 · 2013: 88 · 2012: 76
FWCI
4.74
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Annual Review of Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (5p01dc000520-10)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH55987, R01MH055987)
  • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (DC00520)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS 34835, P01NS034835)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology › Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
Keywords
bird song, human speech, vocal learning, songbirds, auditory feedback, critical period, auditory-motor interaction, innate predispositions, perceptual learning
MeSH terms
Animals, Brain, Humans, Learning, Perception, Speech, Vocalization, Animal

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