Date:
November 27, 2015
Source:
University of Southern Denmark
When
birds and humans sing it sounds completely different, but now new research
reported in the journal Nature Communications shows that the very
same physical mechanisms are at play when a bird sings and a human speaks.
Birds
and humans look different, sound different and evolved completely different
organs for voice production. But now new research published in Nature
Communications reveals that humans and birds use the exact same physical
mechanism to make their vocal cords move and thus produce sound.
"Science
has known for over 60 years that this mechanism -- called the
myoelastic-aerodynamic theory, or in short the MEAD mechanism- drives speech
and singing in humans. We have now shown that birds use the exact same mechanism
to make vocalizations. MEAD might even turn out to be a widespread mechanism in
all land-dwelling vertebrates," says lead author of the paper, Associate
Professor Dr. Coen Elemans, Department of Biology, University of Southern
Denmark.
Co-authors
of the paper are from Emory University, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
and Palacky University.
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