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vocal learning

·May 25, 2019·4 min read

Infants with autism risk may be less likely to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar speech patterns

Children at higher risk of ASD are less able to distinguish between differences in speech patterns. The findings suggest the biological mechanism of language development is less acquisitive in high-risk infants who are diagnosed with autism during toddlerhood.

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·May 26, 2017·5 min read

Monkey Say: Marmosets Learn to Call the Same Way Human Babies Learn to Babble

Just as a baby's babbles begin to sound more like recognizable human speech if they receive frequent vocal feedback from adults, the same kind of interaction speeds up speech acquisition in marmosets, a new study reveals.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·October 20, 2016·6 min read

Male Mice Model Human Speech Defect

A study using male mice with a specific genetic mutation provides an innovative way to study how genes affect vocal sound sequencing.

Image shows a young child sitting alone.

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·June 21, 2016·4 min read

How Songbirds Learn Their Melodies

A new study reports Zebra finches learn their songs by listening to their father's melodies.

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·May 31, 2016·4 min read

Baby Talk Can Help Songbirds Learn Their Songs

According to a new study, adult songbirds modify their vocalizations when singing to juveniles in much the same way humans do when talking to babies.

Image shows the researcher with finches.

Featured Neuroscience

·March 15, 2016·4 min read

Dopamine is Key to Vocal Learning in Songbirds

According to a new study, dopamine is essential for correcting vocal mistakes.

This image shows a parrot and a cut away diagram of the areas of the brain associated with vocal learning.

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·June 24, 2015·6 min read

Pretty Polly! Why Parrots are Great at Vocal Imitation

Researchers have identified structural differences in parrot brains which could explain why they are able to imitate sounds and human speech so well.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·March 8, 2015·3 min read

Mice Don’t Need the Cortex to Sing Their Songs

Researchers explore the foundations of vocal learning.

The image shows a bird sitting on a branch with its mouth open, as if it is singing.

Featured Genetics

·December 23, 2014·2 min read

Could Birdsong Help Us Solve Stuttering?

New research suggests we can gain a better understanding of human speech production by looking at the genetics of songbirds.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·July 2, 2012·3 min read

DNA Sequenced for Parrot’s Ability to Parrot

Scientists say they have assembled more completely the string of genetic letters that could control how well parrots learn to imitate their owners and other sounds by using single molecule sequencing.