ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2012
Human-like brain hemispheric dominance in birdsong learning.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Molecular marker of memory formation reveals complex mechanisms of developmental learning.BMC neuroscience · 2026Article
- Evaluating alpha-synuclein proteinopathy and consequences for birdsong in zebra finch basal ganglia area X.Behavioural brain research · 2025Article
- Integrative neural mechanisms for social communication of learned vocal behavior.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2025Review
- Hemispheric dominance in HVC is experience-dependent in juvenile male zebra finches.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Cortical circuits modulate mouse social vocalizations.Science advances · 2023Article
- Cannabidiol inhibits neuroinflammatory responses and circuit-associated synaptic loss following damage to a songbird vocal pre-motor cortical-like region.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Tracing development of song memory with fMRI in zebra finches after a second tutoring experience.Communications biology · 2023Article
- "Prefrontal" Neuronal Foundations of Visual Asymmetries in Pigeons.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Aromatase and nonaromatase neurons in the zebra finch secondary auditory forebrain are indistinct in their song-driven gene induction and intrinsic electrophysiological properties.The European journal of neuroscience · 2021Article
- American Crow Brain Activity in Response to Conspecific Vocalizations Changes When Food Is Present.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
- Lateralization of social signal brain processing correlates with the degree of social integration in a songbird.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Brain activity underlying American crow processing of encounters with dead conspecifics.Behavioural brain research · 2020Article
- Testosterone synthesis in the female songbird brain.Hormones and behavior · 2020Article
- Hemispheric asymmetry of calbindin-positive neurons is associated with successful song imitation.Brain research · 2020Article
- Article
- Bilateral brain activity in auditory regions is necessary for successful vocal learning in songbirds.Neuroscience letters · 2020Article
- Neuroestrogens rapidly shape auditory circuits to support communication learning and perception: Evidence from songbirds.Hormones and behavior · 2018Review
- Norepinephrine enhances song responsiveness and encoding in the auditory forebrain of male zebra finches.Journal of neurophysiology · 2018Article
- ZENK induction in the zebra finch brain by song: Relationship to hemisphere, rhythm, oestradiol and sex.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2017Article
- Topography and Lateralized Effect of Acute Aromatase Inhibition on Auditory Processing in a Seasonal Songbird.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Unlike nonhuman primates, songbirds learn to vocalize very much like human infants acquire spoken language. In humans, Broca's area in the frontal lobe and Wernicke's area in the temporal lobe are crucially involved in speech production and perception, respectively. Songbirds have analogous brain regions that show a similar neural dissociation between vocal production and auditory perception and memory. In both humans and songbirds, there is evidence for lateralization of neural responsiveness in these brain regions. Human infants already show left-sided dominance in their brain activation when exposed to speech. Moreover, a memory-specific left-sided dominance in Wernicke's area for speech perception has been demonstrated in 2.5-mo-old babies. It is possible that auditory-vocal learning is associated with hemispheric dominance and that this association arose in songbirds and humans through convergent evolution. Therefore, we investigated whether there is similar song memory-related lateralization in the songbird brain. We exposed male zebra finches to tutor or unfamiliar song. We found left-sided dominance of neuronal activation in a Broca-like brain region (HVC, a letter-based name) of juvenile and adult zebra finch males, independent of the song stimulus presented. In addition, juvenile males showed left-sided dominance for tutor song but not for unfamiliar song in a Wernicke-like brain region (the caudomedial nidopallium). Thus, left-sided dominance in the caudomedial nidopallium was specific for the song-learning phase and was memory-related. These findings demonstrate a remarkable neural parallel between birdsong and human spoken language, and they have important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of auditory-vocal learning and its neural mechanisms.
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