127 | Erich Jarvis on Language, Birds, and People

127 | Erich Jarvis on Language, Birds, and People

Many characteristics go into making human beings special — brain size, opposable thumbs, etc. Surely one of the most important is language, and in particular the ability to learn new sounds and use them for communication. Many other species communicate through sound, but only a very few — humans, elephants, bats, cetaceans, and a handful of bird species — learn new sounds in order to do so. Erich Jarvis has been shedding enormous light on the process of vocal learning, by studying birds and comparing them to humans. He argues that there is a particular mental circuit in the brains of parrots (for example) responsible for vocal learning, and that it corresponds to similar circuits in the human brain. This has implications for the development of intelligence and other important human characteristics.

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Erich Jarvis received his Ph.D. in Animal Behavior and Molecular Neurobehavior from Rockefeller University. He is currently a professor in the Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language at Rockefeller and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Among his many awards are the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Foundation, an American Philosophical Society Award, a Packard Foundation fellowship, an NIH Director's Pioneer award, Northwestern University's Distinguished Role Model in Science award, and the Summit Award from the American Society for Association Executives.


Avsnitt(412)

276 | Gavin Schmidt on Measuring, Predicting, and Protecting Our Climate

276 | Gavin Schmidt on Measuring, Predicting, and Protecting Our Climate

The Earth's climate keeps changing, largely due to the effects of human activity, and we haven't been doing enough to slow things down. Indeed, over the past year, global temperatures have been higher...

20 Maj 20241h 19min

275 | Solo: Quantum Fields, Particles, Forces, and Symmetries

275 | Solo: Quantum Fields, Particles, Forces, and Symmetries

Publication week! Say hello to Quanta and Fields, the second volume of the planned three-volume series The Biggest Ideas in the Universe. This volume covers quantum physics generally, but focuses espe...

13 Maj 20242h 12min

AMA | May 2024

AMA | May 2024

Welcome to the May 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreon...

6 Maj 20243h 35min

274 | Gizem Gumuskaya on Building Robots from Human Cells

274 | Gizem Gumuskaya on Building Robots from Human Cells

Modern biology is advancing by leaps and bounds, not only in understanding how organisms work, but in learning how to modify them in interesting ways. One exciting frontier is the study of tiny "robot...

29 Apr 20241h 10min

273 | Stefanos Geroulanos on the Invention of Prehistory

273 | Stefanos Geroulanos on the Invention of Prehistory

Humanity itself might be the hardest thing for scientists to study fairly and accurately. Not only do we come to the subject with certain inevitable preconceptions, but it's hard to resist the temptat...

22 Apr 20241h 19min

272 | Leslie Valiant on Learning and Educability in Computers and People

272 | Leslie Valiant on Learning and Educability in Computers and People

Science is enabled by the fact that the natural world exhibits predictability and regularity, at least to some extent. Scientists collect data about what happens in the world, then try to suggest "law...

15 Apr 20241h 8min

AMA | April 2024

AMA | April 2024

Welcome to the April 2024 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patre...

8 Apr 20243h 14min

271 | Claudia de Rham on Modifying General Relativity

271 | Claudia de Rham on Modifying General Relativity

Einstein's theory of general relativity has been our best understanding of gravity for over a century, withstanding a variety of experimental challenges of ever-increasing precision. But we have to be...

1 Apr 20241h 21min

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