The DOI matches its Crossref record; 14 of the 14 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Learned Birdsong and the Neurobiology of Human Language
Open accessAbstract
A bstract:Vocal learning, the substrate for human language, is a rare trait found to date in only three distantly related groups of mammals (humans, bats, and cetaceans) and three distantly related groups of birds (parrots, hummingbirds, and songbirds). Brain pathways for vocal learning have been studied in the three bird groups and in humans. Here I present a hypothesis on the relationships and evolution of brain pathways for vocal learning among birds and humans. The three vocal learning bird groups each appear to have seven similar but not identical cerebral vocal nuclei distributed into two vocal pathways, one posterior and one anterior. Humans also appear to have a posterior vocal pathway, which includes projections from the face motor cortex to brainstem vocal lower motor neurons, and an anterior vocal pathway, which includes a strip of premotor cortex, the anterior basal ganglia, and the anterior thalamus. These vocal pathways are not found in vocal non‐learning birds or mammals, but are similar to brain pathways used for other types of learning. Thus, I argue that if vocal learning evolved independently among birds and humans, then it did so under strong genetic constraints of a pre‐existing basic neural network of the vertebrate brain.
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Cites
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Self-citationThe Role of Auditory Feedback in the Control of Vocalization in the White-Crowned Sparrow 1
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Cited by
Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds
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Comparative genomics reveals insights into avian genome evolution and adaptation
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Self-citationA humanized version of Foxp2 affects cortico-basal ganglia circuits in mice
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Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain
Olkowicz, S., Kocourek, M., Lučan, R. K., Porteš, M., Fitch, W. T., Herculano-Houzel, S., & Němec, P. (2016) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1517131113 · Cited by 564
Metadata
- Authors
- JARVIS, E. D.
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2004-06
- Volume
- 1016
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 749-777
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- OpenAlex
- W2076350171
- Cited by
- 536
- References
- 14
- FWCI
- 13.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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