These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed


  • Title: From central pattern generator to sensory template in the evolution of birdsong.
    Author: Konishi M.
    Journal: Brain Lang; 2010 Oct; 115(1):18-20. PubMed ID: 20955898.
    Abstract:
    Central nervous networks, be they a part of the human brain or a group of neurons in a snail, may be designed to produce distinct patterns of movement. Central pattern generators can account for the development and production of normal vocal signals without auditory feedback in non-songbirds. Songbirds need auditory feedback to develop and maintain the normal song of their species. The prerequisite for the use of auditory feedback for the control of song is a set of acoustic criteria or a template to which voice must match. The template method perhaps evolved to free birds from fixed central pattern generators, resulting in the evolution of diverse and complex songs among oscine songbirds. The evolution of human speech may have followed a similar course.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]