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NOVA scienceNOW: Bird Brains
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Program Overview
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Scientists discuss speech-processing studies that show similarities
in brain activity when birds learn to make their calls and humans
learn to talk.
This NOVA scienceNOW segment:
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introduces a leading expert on birdsong who believes the key to
understanding human speech lies in understanding how birds learn
their songs.
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states that both birds and humans have sophisticated circuitry
in brain regions that control learned vocal behavior.
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reports that birds learn to sing in a way that is similar to how
humans learn to speak. Early bird song is unstructured, like a
baby's babbling. This stage is followed by mimicking adult
sounds.
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introduces scientists who study speech processing in zebra
finches that stutter. They compare magnetic resonance images of
speech-activation patterns of stuttering and non-stuttering
zebra finches. These patterns are similar to ones seen between
human stutterers and non-stutterers.
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reports on genetic studies of a family who suffered from a rare
speech disorder—a single gene mutation in the FOXP2 gene
was the cause. It was named the language gene.
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reveals that scientists isolated the FOXP2 gene in birds and
discovered that it influences the way a bird learns to sing. The
level of the FOXP2 gene product increases or decreases depending
upon whether song learning is occurring. When researchers
reduced the level of FOXP2 product, the birds had a reduced
capacity to learn song.
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points out that FOXP2 is the only gene known to be essential for
normal speech development in humans and songbirds, and that this
gene is present in most organisms.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program
is taped off the air.
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