Do songbirds and humans have common biological hardwiring that shapes how they produce and perceive sounds?
Scientists who study birdsong have been intrigued for some time by
the possibility that human speech and music may be rooted in biological
processes shared across a variety of animals. Now, research by McGill
University biologists provides new evidence to support this idea.
In a series of experiments, the researchers found that young zebra
finches – a species often used to study birdsong – are intrinsically
biased to learn to produce particular kinds of sound patterns over
others. “In addition, these sound patterns resembled patterns that are
frequently observed across human languages and in music,” says Jon
Sakata, Associate Professor of Biology at McGill and senior author of a
paper published online in Current Biology on Nov. 22.
On the shoulders of Chomsky
The idea for the experiments was inspired by current hypotheses on
human language and music. Linguists have long found that the world’s
languages share many common features, termed “universals.” These
features encompass the syntactic structure of languages (e.g., word
order) as well as finer acoustic patterns of speech, such as the timing,
pitch, and stress of utterances. Some theorists, including Noam
Chomsky, have postulated that these patterns reflect a “universal
grammar” built on innate brain mechanisms that promote and bias language
learning. Researchers continue to debate the extent of these innate
brain mechanisms, in part because of the potential for cultural
propagation to account for universals.
At the same time, vast surveys of zebra finch songs have documented a
variety of acoustic patterns found universally across populations.
“Because the nature of these universals bears similarity to those in
humans and because songbirds learn their vocalizations much in the same
way that humans acquire speech and language, we were motivated to test
biological predisposition in vocal learning in songbirds,” says Logan
James, a PhD student in Sakata’s lab and co-author of the new study.
A buffet of birdsong
In order to isolate biological predispositions, James and Sakata
individually tutored young zebra finches with songs consisting of five
acoustic elements arranged in every possible sequence. The birds were
exposed to each sequence permutation in equal proportion and in a random
order. Each finch therefore had to individually “choose” which
sequences to produce from this buffet of birdsong.
In the end, the patterns that the laboratory-raised birds preferred
to produce were highly similar to those observed in natural populations
of birds. For example, like wild zebra finches, birds tutored with
randomized sequences often placed a “distance call” – a long,
low-pitched vocalization – at the end of their song.
Other sounds were much more likely to appear in the beginning or
middle of the song; for example, short and high-pitched vocalizations
were more likely to be produced in the middle of song than at the
beginning or end of song. This matches patterns observed across diverse
languages and in music, in which sounds at the end of phrases tend to be
longer and lower in pitch than sounds in the middle.
Future research avenues
“These findings have important contributions for our understanding
of human speech and music,” says Caroline Palmer, a Professor of
Psychology at McGill who was not involved in the study. “The research,
which controls the birds’ learning environment in ways that are not
possible with young children, suggests that statistical learning alone
– the degree to which one is exposed to specific acoustic patterns –
cannot account for song (or speech) preferences. Other principles, such
as universal grammars and perceptual organization, are more likely to
account for why human infants as well as juvenile birds are predisposed
to prefer some auditory patterns.”
Sakata, who is also a member of the Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM),
says the study opens up many avenues of future work for his team with
speech, language, and music researchers. “In the immediate future,” he
says, “we want to reveal how auditory processing mechanisms in the
brain, as well as aspects of motor learning and control, underlie these
learning biases.”
Denise Klein, Director of the CRBLM and neuroscientist at the
Montreal Neurological Institute, says James’ and Sakata’s study
“provides insights on universals of vocal communication, helping to
advance our understanding of the neurobiological bases of speech and
music.”
OK, so, the bird in the video is not the same bird in the original shaming picture–the original shamed bird is Larry, and the one in the video is Bibi. So, while Larry’s order is still, alas, a mystery, it has opened up a whole new and interesting thing–
If you watch Bibi’s video in youtube and look in the related videos column, you’ll see videos of other birds playing around with Alexa. And I actually wasted spent a bit of time watching a lot of these because bird behavior is my jam.
Basically, we now have multiple anecdotes of birds playing around with Alexa. And while it’s true that most of them are probably just imitating what their humans have said, the fact remains that they are establishing a cause-and-effect association with Alexa. “If I say this, this human tool will light up and do things.”
Even tiny birds like finches can establish cause-and-effect relationships; the level of thinking that goes on in parrots, which have proportionally larger brains (along with corvids) is incredible. It’s also noteworthy that a lot of the videos are of African gray parrots, which, through the research of Dr. Irene Pepperberg and @alexfoundation, we know to have the intelligence capability of a preschool human.
And while tool use has always been an indicator of animal intelligence, these birds are learning to utilize a sophisticated piece of human technology–not even fellow apes could use this technology, as they can’t create the same sounds as humans can, and yet these parrots, with brains significantly smaller than apes, are learning and succeeding on account of their ability to reproduce our vocalizations. If given the chance, I think domesticated corvids could learn, too, and that would be an amazing potential avenue of research for both corvids and parrots, especially as AI becomes more prevalent.
It also gives new things for bird owners to consider–simply put, you don’t want to connect an AI to your home security system and have your bird learn to activate the panic button in the middle of the night…
(Side note, given that one of the most famous smart parrots was named Alex, it just seems right that these birds are playing around with an AI called Alexa).
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