Budgerigars
Budgerigars are the only animals known so far to have language-producing centers of neurons akin to those in humans, according to new research. H. Zell via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0
Parrots have long fascinated humans with their ability to mimic speech, but new research reveals their brains do more than just imitate—they use complex neural systems that parallel the way humans produce speech. This breakthrough could help scientists better understand how speech works in humans, especially in cases of speech disorders.
A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature explores the brain mechanisms behind parrot sounds. Researchers found that budgerigars, a type of parakeet also called a budgie, have specialized brain regions for vocal production that closely resemble the brain structures humans use for speech.
Budgerigars are the only animals known so far to have language-producing centers in the brain akin to those in humans, as study co-author Michael Long, a neuroscientist at New York University Langone Health, tells Laura Sanders of Science News. “[This] is really the first nonhuman animal in which that has been shown,” he adds.
To investigate how budgies process and produce speech-like sounds, Long and his colleague Zetian Yang implanted tiny probes into the brains of four of the birds. They focused on a brain region known as the anterior arcopallium (AAC), which plays a critical role in controlling vocal output. The researchers found that different neural patterns in this region correspond to different sounds—a process that mirrors how human brains encode speech.
“It’s a kind of vocal keyboard,” Long tells Lauren Leffer of Popular Science. “Individual brain cells seem to be driving consonant sounds and vowel sounds. Even within the vowels, there’s a whole spectrum of different pitches that they can achieve. We find B-flat cells, we find B-cells—all across the musical register… With all of those combined, you can basically code up whatever you want to say.”
The findings in budgies contrast sharply with what scientists have observed in zebra finches, a species of songbird that, unlike budgerigars, does not engage in vocal mimicry. In zebra finches, vocalizations appear to be encoded as rigid, fixed patterns of complex neural activity, making it difficult for them to modify their learned songs. In budgerigars, however, the AAC allows for much more adaptable and improvisational speech patterns, similar to those seen in humans.
“What the parrot has presented is this beautiful, elegant solution for making vocal sounds,” Long tells Michael Marshall of New Scientist. “It has this kind of set of keys, or in this case, set of brain cells, that can represent each one of these vocal outcomes and then play whatever it wants.”
In humans, speech works in a similar way—specific neural patterns in the brain correspond to various muscle movements in the lips and tongue, per Popular Science. Artificial intelligence has been able to use these links to look at the brain activity of a person who cannot speak and produce the words they are trying to say. This suggests humans and budgerigars use brain-based vocal maps in related ways.
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The study adds to a growing body of research on animal cognition, highlighting that birds may possess more advanced neural processes than previously believed. Parrots are already known for their impressive memory and tool-using abilities, but this discovery further challenges the assumption that complex vocal control is unique to humans.
Erich Jarvis, a researcher at The Rockefeller University who was not involved with the study, emphasizes the significance of the finding, telling New Scientist, “it shows that the neural activity and associated vocal behavior is closer between parrots and humans than parrots with songbirds.”
The research also has potential evolutionary implications. The similarities between human and budgerigar brains suggest these two species may have developed comparable neural strategies for vocal learning, despite being separated by millions of years of evolution. Scientists refer to this as convergent evolution, in which different species independently evolve similar traits to solve the same problems.
Beyond its evolutionary and cognitive dimensions, the research could have practical applications for human health. By better understanding how the AAC organizes vocal output in budgerigars, researchers hope to gain new insights into human speech disorders, such as aphasia and Parkinson’s disease, which can impair a person’s ability to produce language.
“Such studies hold promise for advancing speech therapies and inspiring brain-computer interface technologies,” writes Joshua Neunuebel, a neuroscientist at the University of Delaware who was not involved in the study, in an accompanying commentary for Nature.
Long’s team is now working with machine learning researchers to attempt a “translation” of budgerigar vocalizations. If successful, this work could provide deeper insights into what these birds are truly communicating when they mimic human speech and each other’s calls.
“We are trying now to translate budgie,” he tells Science News. “Maybe we can start to reexamine the notions of human exceptionalism.”
Future studies may also explore whether other highly skilled vocal mimics, such as lyrebirds, share similar neural structures, offering further clues into the evolution of speech. Additionally, researchers hope to track how the AAC develops over time and examine how social interactions influence vocal learning in budgerigars.
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Ella Jeffries | READ MORE
Ella Jeffries is an editorial intern with Smithsonian magazine.
Filed Under: Animals, Biology, Birds, Brain, Evolution, Language, Neuroscience, New Research