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How do birds learn to sing?
When you enter the office of Dr. Neal Hessler, a room furnished in spring green colors on the fourth floor of the east building of the Brain Science Institute, the first thing you see is a telescope pointed out the window, directed towards a nearby hill.
Dr. Hessler, team leader of the Laboratory for Vocal Behavior Mechanisms Research, claims that he did not particularly like birds and animals until his high-school years, but that after he started studying zebra finches in his research, he began to enjoy birdwatching with his scope during his breaks.
A small bird, the Zebra Finch is a member of the Family Estrildidae, along with the Bengalese Finch and the Java Sparrow. There are interesting characteristics to the way it learns to sing.
Using a board covered with attractive hand-drawn illustrations, Dr. Hessler describes how birdsong is learned. "A zebra finch learns to sing when it is between 2 and 3 weeks old by hearing its father sing. If it is not with its parents during this period, it cannot learn to sing after it matures. And it will not learn to sing if, instead of its father's song, it hears the recorded birdsong of a mature bird, or the birdsong of mature birds from another nest. A fledgling can only learn to sing properly by interacting with its father.
For humans, using our voices to talk is an extremely natural act, but we must learn our vocal behaviors and songbirds are one of the few other animals that also learn this way. Dr. Hessler is studying the zebra finch in an attempt to clarify the neural networks and physiological mechanisms that enable people to learn vocal behaviors through complex learning processes.
Dr. Hessler also wants to study how the way a bird's brain is stimulated differs according to the situation when it is singing.
"For example, we know that a bird's neural activity is stimulated in a different way when it is singing to another bird than it is when it is chirping to itself. This means that the social context has an impact on a bird's song and neural activity. Considering the fact that communication between parent birds and a fledgling is necessary for learning vocalization, this is an extremely interesting fact.
He is happiest when he is absorbed in his research.
Dr. Hessler has been in Japan for more than a year. He says that his life as a researcher in Japan is very pleasant, but he is sometimes bothered by the language barrier. He laughed mischievously as he commented, "I am studying Japanese, but it is very hard to learn. After my research has progressed, perhaps I will be able to learn Japanese a little more easily."
"I feel that a big benefit of doing my research in Japan is that here I can devote all my time to my research. In the United States, researchers have to raise funding for their research through their own efforts. It was distressing to have to take time off from my research to raise money. But I don't have to do that here at Riken. When I told this to some American researchers, they were extremely envious."
The statement that the happiest time for a researcher is when he is absorbed in an experiment is a comment typical of Dr. Hessler.
Dr. Hessler didn't have a particular interest in Japan before arriving here, but now a small miniature tree stands on his desk and a Japanese woodblock print of a small bird hangs on the wall of his office.
Dr. Hessler says that they are there so that the laboratory will be a pleasant place for his staff to work in, but I feel that they clearly represent his own tastes.The small birds were originally just objects of his research, but he now smiles as he says,
"I really love them and think they are very cute." After he stays in Japan a little longer, perhaps he will say, "I love Japan." |
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