The mysteries of nature
are myriad. Some makes you wonder with its complexities and nuances. A bird
song might seem ordinary at first glance. Look at it from a scientist’s
perspective and there is more in it than meets the eye.
Researchers studying bird songs have arrived
at fascinating conclusions. Professor Richard Hahnloser and his team of
researchers from the University of Zurich after extensive studies on Zebra Finch have come up with the conclusion that Songbirds
learn to sing from a hymn sheet in their head. They believe that the birds have an internal
recording that helps the birds to perfect singing. A separate region seems to
enable the birds to identify mistakes in their songs. To arrive at the
conclusions the researchers monitored the electrical activity of cells in the
zebra finches brains. While some neurons were constantly active, other cells became active only when the birds
made mistakes. It is these cells that enable the birds to learn from their
errors. The researchers believe that their research could unravel the
complexities of how humans learn to speak.
The details of research appears in the journal Science