dotlah! dotlah!
  • Cities
  • Technology
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Science
  • About
Social Links
  • zedreviews.com
  • citi.io
  • aster.cloud
  • liwaiwai.com
  • guzz.co.uk
  • atinatin.com
0 Likes
0 Followers
0 Subscribers
dotlah!
  • Cities
  • Technology
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Science
  • About
  • Science

Complex Birdsongs Help Biologists Piece Together The Evolution Of Lifelong Learning

  • September 6, 2019
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

Bonjour! Ni hao! Merhaba! If you move to a new country as an adult, you have to work much harder to get past that initial “hello” in the local language than if you’d moved as a child. Why does it take so much effort to learn a new language later in life?

Vocal learning in birds is a lot like how people learn language. Alexandra Giese/Shutterstock.com

Our human ability to learn language slows down as we get older, but scientists are not sure how or why this happens. An unexpected way to understand this learning process might come from listening to birds sing.

After all, songbirds have a lot to learn. They don’t hatch knowing what songs to sing, or how to sing them. Instead, they must learn their species’ song. Young birds listen to adult birds and then practice copying the adult’s song syllables until they sound right. If they fail to learn an appropriate song, male birds will have difficulty attracting mates or defending their territories.

How do birds learn to sing?

This process of vocal learning is remarkably similar to how humans learn language: Babies listen to their parents speaking and then practice making the same sounds by babbling. Because these processes are so similar, birds have long been used to study vocal learning.

However, while these learning processes are similar, the functions of speech and song are quite different. Human speech is complex and made up of many sounds that we use to convey an infinite number of ideas to each other. Birds only need to announce their presence to mates and rivals, yet their song can also be made of a repertoire of hundreds or thousands of unique syllables. What benefit could these more elaborate songs offer males?

Birdsong researchers have long thought that these elaborate repertoires are the product of sexual selection: If males that know more syllables attract more mates or repel more rivals, they’ll be more successful in the mating game. Then, the species should evolve larger syllable repertoires over time. Indeed, we have previously found that females seem to prefer the most verbose males primarily in species that already have a lot of syllables.

Even adult European starlings can add to their complex repertoire by learning new syllables. Soru Epotok/Shutterstock.com

Learning with ease – within the window

Songbirds have evolved to be incredibly diverse – their songs range from simple to complex, and their song-learning processes are similarly divergent. From species to species, the duration of the song-learning window varies widely.

Some songbirds, called closed-ended learners, can only learn song for a short period of time. For example, zebra finches must perfect their song by the time they are 90 days old. After that, they never change their tune. In contrast, open-ended learners, like the European starling, have very long learning windows. Humans might be somewhere in between – we can learn language easily for a number of years, but it becomes much more challenging in adulthood.

Why do some birds only learn for a short period of time, while others learn for life? How does a longer learning window affect their song? Could mating preferences, such as females preferring complex songs, affect the evolution of learning? As biologists who are interested in how learned behaviors change over time, we wanted to investigate whether the songs birds learn can be linked to how their brains evolve. This could provide a crucial link between how learning evolves and why learning language as a human adult is so difficult.

The learning clock is ticking for zebra finch chicks. Olena Kurashova/Shutterstock.com

Evolving complex songs and lifelong learning

From an earlier study in a small number of species, we knew that open-ended learners know more unique syllables than those whose learning window closes sooner. This implied that song complexity and the learning window could influence one another’s evolution, but we had not yet shown that this was the case.

To investigate this possibility, we collected published field data to test whether the length of the song-learning window affected the evolution of song features such as song complexity, measured by the number of unique syllables that a bird sings. We also wanted to find an evolutionary order of events; did larger repertoires evolve before longer learning windows or vice versa?

We found that not only were song and syllable repertoires larger in open-ended learners, but they also evolved faster in these species relative to those that stopped learning before their first breeding season. Songbird species that learn elaborate songs with short learning windows quickly evolve either simpler songs or longer phases of learning. In contrast, species that learn simple songs during a longer learning window tended to evolve more elaborate songs or shorten the amount of time they spent learning.

Our results suggest a fascinating possibility: sexual selection for more elaborate songs can, in turn, favor the evolution of lifelong learning. This could be a key difference between the evolution of human language and the evolution of birdsong, since sexual selection is not likely to be acting on languages in the same way.

Together, our findings support two ideas: First, more elaborate repertoires are easier to learn when birds learn for a longer period of time. Second, longer learning may be costly, because birds with small repertoires that can be quickly learned appear to lose their ability to learn for longer windows of time.

These intuitive results help us build our birdsong story. If sexual selection favors larger repertoires, then the growth of a species’ syllable repertoire gives a competitive edge to birds with longer song-learning windows. In other words, just by preferring fancy songs, birds could have changed the evolution of their brains, increasing their capacity to learn.

Do humans also have long learning windows because the evolution of our complex language and cultures depended on it? If language learning is so valuable, why does it get so much more difficult as an adult? Future research on birds and their brains could help scientists understand more about why.

Nicole Creanza explains the authors’ most recent study findings.

The Conversation

Cristina Robinson, Ph.D. Candidate in Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University; Kate Snyder, Ph.D. Candidate in Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, and Nicole Creanza, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Total
0
Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Related Topics
  • Bird song
  • Birds
  • Language
  • Learning
  • Vocal Learning
majulah

Previous Article
  • Science

Analysis Of Global Cancer Data Shines Light On Alternative Gene “Switches” In Tumours

  • September 6, 2019
View Post
Next Article
  • Cities
  • Society

How People Talk Now Holds Clues About Human Migration Centuries Ago

  • September 9, 2019
View Post
You May Also Like
Semiconductor
View Post
  • Computing
  • Science

Decoding The Digital. Distinguishing Computer Science And Information Technology In Society And Industry.

  • Dean Marc
  • May 2, 2024
View Post
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Data
  • Research
  • Science

Generative AI Could Offer A Faster Way To Test Theories Of How The Universe Works

  • dotlah.com
  • March 17, 2024
Mercury
View Post
  • Science
  • Technology

Study: Global Deforestation Leads To More Mercury Pollution

  • dotlah.com
  • February 14, 2024
View Post
  • Science
  • Technology

Higher, Faster: What Influences The Aerodynamics Of A Football?

  • dotlah.com
  • February 11, 2024
View Post
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Science
  • Technology

A Glimpse Of The Next Generation Of AlphaFold

  • dotlah.com
  • November 6, 2023
View Post
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning
  • Science
  • Technology

AI in the Classroom: Amii’s K-12 Pilot Program

  • dotlah.com
  • October 23, 2023
View Post
  • Science
  • Technology

Learning How To Learn

  • John Francis
  • October 23, 2023
View Post
  • Engineering
  • Science
  • Technology

With Psyche, A Journey To An Ancient Asteroid Is Set To Begin

  • dotlah.com
  • October 13, 2023


Trending
  • 1
    • Society
    The World’s Top Remittance Recipients
    • May 4, 2020
  • manhattan-brooklyn-median-rent-2021-03-24316 2
    • Cities
    Rent Plummets In NYC
    • March 4, 2021
  • 3
    • Technology
    Singapore Technology Companies Find New Opportunities And Strengthen Partnerships At Smart China Expo 2019
    • August 27, 2019
  • covid-19 antigen test 4
    • People
    • World Events
    PCR, Antigen And Antibody: Five Things To Know About Coronavirus Tests
    • January 2, 2021
  • 5
    • Cities
    • Lah!
    COVID-19 And Its Impact On Global Aviation Capacity
    • June 9, 2020
  • router 6
    • Technology
    IMDA Publishes Technical Specifications For Residential Gateways (Home Routers) To Enhance Security
    • October 17, 2020
  • 7
    • Cities
    • Technology
    KPMG Proposes Budget 2020 To Propel Singapore As Transformation Capital Of Asia
    • January 29, 2020
  • 8
    • Lah!
    New Therapeutic Garden At Telok Blangah Hill Park
    • March 10, 2020
  • 9
    • Society
    As China Suffers From Coronavirus, Some Wonder: Is It Really That Serious?
    • February 11, 2020
  • 10
    • Technology
    ABB Powers Singapore’s Digital Economy
    • August 12, 2019
  • 11
    • Environment
    • People
    • World Events
    Quarantines Have Tried To Keep Out Disease For Thousands Of Years
    • March 16, 2020
  • 12
    • Cities
    Popes were once confined to Rome. Now they travel the world – and Francis’ current journey is particularly significant
    • September 13, 2024
Trending
  • 1
    Why climate summits fail – and three ways to save them
    • October 21, 2025
  • Bluetooth speakers 2
    Best Bluetooth Speakers Under $200 (2025 Edition)
    • October 16, 2025
  • 3
    Apple Vision Pro upgraded with the powerful M5 chip and comfortable Dual Knit Band
    • October 15, 2025
  • 4
    Apple unveils new 14‑inch MacBook Pro powered by the M5 chip, delivering the next big leap in AI for the Mac
    • October 15, 2025
  • 5
    Apple introduces the powerful new iPad Pro with the M5 chip
    • October 15, 2025
  • 6
    Singapore’s national identity excludes those who don’t look like a ‘regular family’
    • October 9, 2025
  • Smart Watch 7
    Best Smartwatches, Your Gateway to Health Monitoring and Everyday Use
    • October 5, 2025
  • Cooking pots and pans 8
    Best Pots and Pans 2025: All-Season, All-Purpose Picks for Every Kitchen
    • September 23, 2025
  • 9
    Politicians love comparing NZ’s economy to Singapore or Ireland – but it’s simplistic and misleading
    • September 21, 2025
  • Kitchen Knives - Best All-Around Picks in 2025 10
    Kitchen Knives : The Surgeons of Cooking – Best All-Around Picks in 2025
    • September 15, 2025
Social Links
dotlah! dotlah!
  • Cities
  • Technology
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Science
  • About
Connecting Dots Across Asia's Tech and Urban Landscape

Input your search keywords and press Enter.