Bird Brains Show How Trial and Error May Contribute to Learning
...sary to master sophisticated motor skills, such as singing in birds or speech and sports in humans. "It mean...more variable brain activity when the finches were singing to themselves compared to when they were serenading females. Kao wondered whether she could cause ch...One gene links newborn neurons with those that die in diseases such as Alzheimer's
...ds, known as the high vocal center, controls their singing behavior. It was in this brain region that, more t...ons born during adulthood die, but a bird's active singing increases the survival rate of new neurons. They reasoned that, if UCHL1 levels are related to the d...'Uniquely human' component of language found in gregarious birds
...ted." But these iridescent six-inch, three-ounce singing black birds have known this all their lives. They were only waiting for this moment to arise. ...Bird brains shrink from exposure to contaminants
The regions in robins' brains responsible for singing and mating are shrinking when exposed to high levels of DDT, says new University of Alberta research--the first proof that natural exposure to a contaminant damages the brain of a wild animal. "These residues have been persisting since the late 19......eloped an unusual way of scaring off predators ?by singing to them. The primatologists at the University of ...song as a natural defence to predators. Literally singing for survival, the gibbons appear to use the song not just to warn their own group members but those ...For crickets, parasitic flies can stop the music
...und that female crickets are reluctant to approach singing males in the fall, perhaps unknowingly avoiding be...logy professor Jane Brockmann. On the one hand, singing and finding mates increases a male’s reproductive success; on the other, it also carries high potent...Dinosaur hearing, listening to muscle noise, quieter cubicles
...a teacher provides verbal critiques on a student's singing performance, the information may be imprecisely stated, or misinterpreted by the student. Addressing this issue, David M. Howard of the University of York ( dh@ohm.york.ac.uk ) will present a real-time display system for singing-voice development. T...... vocally and a second one that they only overheard singing with another young bird. Even though they learned...arlier proposed that eavesdropping and interactive singing are critical in song learning. However, they could not determine if the young birds learned more by...