Science / Medicine : Singing Alters Birds’ Brains

Young birds that are learning songs create brain cells that indirectly link up to nerves controlling vocal muscles, a study says.

“A major portion of the vocal motor (nerve) pathway is actually created during song learning,” researchers reported last week in the journal Nature.

Kathy and Ernest Nordeen of the University of Rochester in New York studied brains of male zebra finches. The birds memorize song 20 to 65 days after hatching and start practicing at about 30 days.

The researchers identified brain cells that arose from ages of 20 days to 64 days in a part of the brain critical for song production. More than half the new cells reached into a second area of the brain that projects to nerve cells that control vocal muscles, they report.