Do You Know How Baby Birds Learn to Sing?
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I think for most new parents the most wonderful sound in the world is the babbling of their little blessings. For me the babbling of my son, Jalen, was music to my ears and never failed to bring a smile to my lips and joy to my heart. So, it was quite interesting to read an article that reveals that baby birds also babble just like human babies do.
Scientists have found that baby birds actually learn to sing by first learning to babble in much the same way babies learn to talk by babbling. Another interesting discovery in this article is that it suggests that birds learn to sing and children learn to talk ?independently of adults singing or talking?. Why? Because the researchers found that baby birds have special circuits in their brains that allow them to babble. According to senior author of the study, Michale S. Fee, who is also a neuroscientist in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her colleagues, ?Young birds learn their songs in a series of stages. They start out just as humans do, by babbling.?
The researchers used zebra finches as their study group. They found out that if they inactivated a particular portion of adult zebra finch?s brain in what is called the ?high vocal center? or HVC they started babbling. However, the research showed that the babbling of baby birds came from a different area of the brain. In addition, baby birds babble in random order while the songs of adult finches are in a set pattern that is repeated over and over again.
So what can we learn about our babies and what they learn from us and what is really a matter of natural progression as they mature? I really don?t know but will leave that up to the experts to determine, but I will be sure to pay extra attention to the songs of baby birds as I do to the sounds of babies ? sweet is music coming straight from the heart.
The article was published in the May 2 issue of Science.
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