Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31735153›Full record

ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2020

Behaviour, biology and evolution of vocal learning in bats.

Sonja C Vernes, Gerald S Wilkinson

Open access · bronzeAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
31citing papers in PubMed
11.1field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

31 citing papers in PubMed, 61 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Assessing the Role of Vocal Plasticity in Sociospatial Coordination.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026
    Review
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Neuronal activity underlying vocal production in bats.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025
    Review
  6. Article
  7. A haplotype-resolved reference genome of a long-distance migratory bat, Pipistrellus nathusii (Keyserling & Blasius, 1839).DNA research : an international journal for rapid publication of reports on genes and genomes · 2024
    Article
  8. Article
  9. A perspective on neuroethology: what the past teaches us about the future of neuroethology.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2024
    Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Bats possess the anatomical substrate for a laryngeal motor cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Vocal accommodation in penguins (Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Review
  20. A dual larynx motor networks hypothesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Sonja C VernesNeurogenetics of Vocal Communication Group, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, PO Box 310, Nijmegen 6500 AH, The Netherlands.
Gerald S WilkinsonDepartment of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Radboud University Nijmegen · NLUniversity of Maryland, College Park · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The comparative approach can provide insight into the evolution of human speech, language and social communication by studying relevant traits in animal systems. Bats are emerging as a model system with great potential to shed light on these processes given their learned vocalizations, close social interactions, and mammalian brains and physiology. A recent framework outlined the multiple levels of investigation needed to understand vocal learning across a broad range of non-human species, including cetaceans, pinnipeds, elephants, birds and bats. Here, we apply this framework to the current state-of-the-art in bat research. This encompasses our understanding of the abilities bats have displayed for vocal learning, what is known about the timing and social structure needed for such learning, and current knowledge about the prevalence of the trait across the order. It also addresses the biology (vocal tract morphology, neurobiology and genetics) and evolution of this trait. We conclude by highlighting some key questions that should be answered to advance our understanding of the biological encoding and evolution of speech and spoken communication. This article is part of the theme issue 'What can animal communication teach us about human language?'

Indexed as

Animal CommunicationAnimalsBirdsBrainChiropteraComprehensionHumansLanguageLearningSpeechVocalization, AnimalChiropteraFoxP2languageneurobiologyspeechvocal production learning

Identifiers

PMID31735153
PMCPMC6895559
OpenAlexW2954343097

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.