人类大脑左侧的特定区域控制说话和语言处理，而一项研究在鸣禽的脑中发现了类似组织，其常常被研究，从而理解人类如何学习说话。与人类类似，鸣禽通过模仿它们的照顾提供者从而在婴儿期学习发音。
刊登在PNAS的一篇报告中，Sanne Moorman及其同事比较了接触了父亲的鸣叫或者接触不熟悉的鸣叫的年轻的和成年的斑胸草雀的神经活动模式。这组作者发现了两个区域的左侧激发。一个区域称为HVC，它被认为类似于人类大脑管理语言产生的所谓布罗卡区；称为NCM的第二个区域被认为类似于管理语言处理的韦尼克区。
HVC的左侧激发出现在年轻和成年的斑胸草雀中，而不论这种动物接触的鸣叫如何，而NCM区域的激发仅仅发生在接触父亲的鸣叫的幼鸟中。这些结果向这组作者提示，幼鸟的NCM区的左侧激发是与记忆有关的，而且对鸣叫学习具有特异性。这组作者说，这些发现提示类似的神经机制参与了鸟鸣学习和人类语言的获得。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1073/pnas.1207207109
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Human-like brain hemispheric dominance in birdsong learning
Sanne Moormana,1, Sharon M. H. Gobesa,b,c, Maaike Kuijpersa, Amber Kerkhofsa, Matthijs A. Zandbergena, and Johan J. Bolhuisa
Unlike nonhuman primates, songbirds learn to vocalize very much like human infants acquire spoken language. In humans, Broca’s area in the frontal lobe and Wernicke’s area in the temporal lobe are crucially involved in speech production and perception, respectively. Songbirds have analogous brain regions that show a similar neural dissociation between vocal production and auditory perception and memory. In both humans and songbirds, there is evidence for lateralization of neural responsiveness in these brain regions. Human infants already show left-sided dominance in their brain activation when exposed to speech. Moreover, a memory-specific left-sided dominance in Wernicke’s area for speech perception has been demonstrated in 2.5-mo-old babies. It is possible that auditory-vocal learning is associated with hemispheric dominance and that this association arose in songbirds and humans through convergent evolution. Therefore, we investigated whether there is similar song memory-related lateralization in the songbird brain. We exposed male zebra finches to tutor or unfamiliar song. We found left-sided dominance of neuronal activation in a Broca-like brain region (HVC, a letter-based name) of juvenile and adult zebra finch males, independent of the song stimulus presented. In addition, juvenile males showed left-sided dominance for tutor song but not for unfamiliar song in a Wernicke-like brain region (the caudomedial nidopallium). Thus, left-sided dominance in the caudomedial nidopallium was specific for the song-learning phase and was memory-related. These findings demonstrate a remarkable neural parallel between birdsong and human spoken language, and they have important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of auditory-vocal learning and its neural mechanisms.
