Periodic Reporting for period 3 - CULTSONG (Culture as an evolutionary force: Does song learning accelerate speciation in a bat ring species?)
Período documentado: 2022-05-01 hasta 2023-10-31
We are also studying proximate mechanisms involved in mammalian song learning, such as neural gene expression patterns and the flexibility of the learning process. Currently, we are analyzing the expression patterns of FoxP2, a gene crucial for the development of correct speech in humans and song in birds, in the brains of S. bilineata pups during song learning. We recently demonstrated that pups of this extraordinary bat species engage in a conspicuous vocal practice behaviour during ontogeny which strongly resembles human infant babbling. Babbling bat pups produce long multisyllabic vocal sequences which include syllable types of the adult vocal repertoire. Pup babbling is characterized by the same eight features as human infant babbling. The observed parallels in vocal ontogeny between two mammalian vocal production learners (S. bilineata and humans) offer future possibilities for comparison of cognitive and neuromolecular mechanisms and adaptive functions of babbling which, in humans, is a production milestone in infant speech development.