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?
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Songbirds Aid Study Of Human Speech Production
During one of my recent talks, specifically to the Salon group at the University of Manchester, local polymath Ray Tallis poured scorn on my assertion that songbirds were teaching us a lot about how we make language. I already knew, for instance, how similar birdsong is to human speech - it contains syllables that can only be arranged in a certain way, for instance, and has to be taught to young male songbirds by mentor adults during their "window of opportunity" for song acquisition. The gene FOXP2, heavily implicated in human speech and language, is similarly implicated in birdsong. Here is another interesting aspect of birdsong/human language research.
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