A 'one of a kind' fossil discovery could transform our understanding of how the unique brains and intelligence of modern birds evolved, one of the most enduring mysteries of vertebrate evolution.

Read More: Prehistoric Bird Brain May Be a Rosetta Stone for Avian Evolution To study learning for its own sake, young male zebra finches that had memorized their male parent's courtship song were ...

Brain scientists are beginning to disentangle the molecular mechanisms underlying the intrinsic motivation to learn. DURHAM, N.C. -- In his lab at Duke University, neuroscientist Richard Mooney shows ...

The parakeets commonly kept as pets could offer fresh clues about vocal learning and potential treatments for speech disorders ...

In his 40 years at Rockefeller University, Nottebohm was (among other things) the first researcher to map the neural circuits used to learn and produce birdsong, the first to uncover large anatomic ...

Budgie brains contain a map of vocal sounds, which is similar to that found in the human brain and has not been seen in any other bird. “We found that there was a representation of vocal sounds ...

Pitch determines how high or low a sound is — for example, the chirp of a bird versus the growl of a ... compare it with analogous brain regions in other species or manipulate its activity ...

According to the press release, it didn’t matter whether the bird hit all the notes or missed some — any attempt at singing triggered the brain's reward pathways. Additionally, the better the bird ...