What the brains of song birds can teach us about human stuttering
A symphony of synapses fires every time a songbird sings. For Erich Jarvis, a neurobiologist at Rockefeller University, the neural pathways he finds particularly interesting inside a birds’ brain are those that enable the bird to make new sounds from listening to their environment. This is an ability known as vocal learning, and is perhaps most notably exhibited when a parrot mimics a person’s speech (or profanity). Humans too have the capacity for vocal learning — it’s a foundation of human language. As do elephants, who scientists discovered can imitate the sounds of passing trucks.
Jarvis, who is also a scientific investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, studies the molecular and genetic processes involved in how certain species of birds copy, modify, and produce new sounds. He sat down with STAT to discuss how uncovering the secrets behind these behaviors in the avian brain can help scientists better understand the intricacies of our own brains, and potentially find treatments for vocal disorders like stuttering. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
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