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Comparative analyses of speech and language converge on birds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2014

Gabriël J. L. Beckers ,
Robert C. Berwick  and
Johan J. Bolhuis
Gabriël J. L. Beckers
Affiliation:
Cognitive Neurobiology and Helmholtz Institute, Departments of Psychology and Biology, Utrecht University, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. g.j.l.beckers@uu.nlhttp://gbeckers.nlj.j.bolhuis@uu.nlhttp://www.bio.uu.nl/behaviour/Bolhuis
Robert C. Berwick
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139. berwick@csail.mit.eduhttp://lids.mit.edu/people/faculty/berwick-robert.html
Johan J. Bolhuis
Affiliation:
Cognitive Neurobiology and Helmholtz Institute, Departments of Psychology and Biology, Utrecht University, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. g.j.l.beckers@uu.nlhttp://gbeckers.nlj.j.bolhuis@uu.nlhttp://www.bio.uu.nl/behaviour/Bolhuis
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Abstract

Unlike nonhuman primates, thousands of bird species have articulatory capabilities that equal or surpass those of humans, and they develop their vocalizations through vocal imitation in a way that is very similar to how human infants learn to speak. An understanding of how speech mechanisms have evolved is therefore unlikely to yield key insights into how the human brain is special.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 6 , December 2014 , pp. 547 - 548
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

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