title: Comparative analyses of speech and language converge on birds.
abstract: Unlike nonhuman primates, thousands of bird species have articulatory capabilities that equal or surpass those of humans, and they develop their vocalizations through vocal imitation in a way that is very similar to how human infants learn to speak. An understanding of how speech mechanisms have evolved is therefore unlikely to yield key insights into how the human brain is special.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurobiology and Helmholtz Institute,Departments of Psychology and Biology,Utrecht University,3584 CH Utrecht,The Netherlands.g.j.l.beckers@uu.nlhttp://gbeckers.nlj.j.bolhuis@uu.nlhttp://www.bio.uu.nl/behaviour/Bolhuis.
authors.forename: Gabriël J L
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Beckers
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences,Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Cambridge, MA 02139.berwick@csail.mit.eduhttp://lids.mit.edu/people/faculty/berwick-robert.html.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Berwick
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurobiology and Helmholtz Institute,Departments of Psychology and Biology,Utrecht University,3584 CH Utrecht,The Netherlands.g.j.l.beckers@uu.nlhttp://gbeckers.nlj.j.bolhuis@uu.nlhttp://www.bio.uu.nl/behaviour/Bolhuis.
authors.forename: Johan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Bolhuis
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D011323:Primates / Q000502:physiology*; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*