The relationship shared by birds and humans may seem more appropriate to a Maya Angelou poem than a scientific discovery. But recent studies conducted by two University researchers aim to prove that despite our biological differences, the songs we sing may remain the same.
Working in conjunction with Carolyn Pytte of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., neuroscientists David Vicario and Mimi Phan recently published a paper that examines the ways in which zebra finches store the memory of their caregivers' songs.
Through their work involving the tiny birds, the researchers discovered that the memory of caregivers' songs is stored in a part of the brain involved in hearing.
According to the study, the implication for humans stems from their distinction - along with songbirds, dolphins and whales - as animals that learn vocalization by imitating their caregivers.
"The findings reported in the paper are a start to helping us understand how speech acquisition is influenced by how well the relevant auditory information is remembered - in the case of the bird, the father's song; in the case of a human infant, the language of his native tongue," said Phan, a post doctoral associate in psychology.
Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, said of the findings are exciting.
"They provide neurobiological evidence that helps explain human infants' acquisition of speech," she said.
In order to reach their conclusions, the researchers executed a progression of experiments that at times proved challenging due not only to the complexity of the project at hand, but of the inherent difficulty of working with birds weighing in at roughly half an ounce.
Vicario - an associate professor of psychology - said even though the brains of humans and birds are quite different, the recognition of songs by the finches is "similar to our ability to recognize a person by the qualities of their voice, or our ability to hear differences in accent by different speakers."
The paper results from just one of many projects being conducted in Vicario's laboratory - where zebra finches, Bengalese finches and canaries are raised for research purposes.
Vicario has studied the mechanisms of vocal learning for some time, using birds as the basis for experimentation and subsequent conclusions seeking to gain an increased understanding of the science beyond the avian world.
Although non-scientists may find it difficult to appreciate the connection between the memories of birds and humans, basic brain processes are similar in all vertebrates. Future research in the discipline aims to contribute further to the understanding of human speech.
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