Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Thursday, 7 January 2010
FoxP2 Is Actively Regulated During Songbird Sensorimotor Learning
In NOT A CHIMP I explain how Stephanie White and Constance Sharff researched the role of FOXP2 in song acquistion by song-birds, and the areas in the bird brain in which it is active. In this follow-up paper in PLoS One, which is very detailed, White goes on to look at the interaction between FOXP2 expression levels, principally in Area X in zebra finch brain, not only when the circuits associated with song are being sculpted, but during vocal learning. As I point out, young birds learn their songs from a mentor adult bird, and produce a high fidelity copy of the adult song before further elaboration sculpts it to personal taste. Here, White et al show a complex interaction between hearing and vocal production in which FOXP2 production is down-regulated during the highly variable period of song acquisition which precedes the final rendition. Birds that are the most variable in song during this learning process end up with the better quality finished songs.
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