Serenading mice can sing along if you hum a few bars Neuroboffins are claiming that mice can not only sing, serenading at ultrasonic melodies high above soprano, but they can also change their tune. Remy from Ratatouille The study has found certain brain features, associated with human and song-learning birds' brains, that show they may be able to learn new songs from each …
Why wouldn't the motor cortex be involved in vocalisation? If we damage the motor cortex of a mouse, why would we expect anything other than a very spazzy mouse?
What exactly is the "new science" here?
Sounds like some publicity-seeking tarts are playing with a very expensive brain scanner.
Because you need a wee bit more to "sing" than simply emit a (serial) pitched noise, and there's quite a bit of overlap in various modes of pitch/sound forming, all using roughly the same area of the motor cortex, which incidentally also handles other functions in the same "geographical" area of musculature.
If you're so smart, *you* try and pinpoint the handful of neurons responsible for [behaviour X] without the use of a lot of fancy technology, and without going through several years' worth of mice allowance in a month.
*If* you can get the permits necessary for in-vivo invasive animal experiments using your doubtlessly superior methods of experimentation..
The "C" in AC is strong in you though.
I'm no boffin, but the point of this was to find out if the songs of mice were innate and unchangeable, or involved forms of thinking and learning.
The new science is that we now know the songs of mice aren't entirely innate or instinctive, and that mice can change their songs according to what they hear, which amounts to learning. That's the 'new science'
The ramifications of this are clearly valuable, and open the way to addressing more intractable scientific challenges. It's now possible to imagine, for example, that within a lifetime we'll be able to teach a guinea pig to sing.
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... who spend a lot of time being experimented on.
Now, if these two male mice are our friends Benjy and Frankie, we should shortly be hearing some exciting news about a new bypass in our neighbourhood.
Has anyone been down the planning office recently? I must admit, I haven't - too apathetic.
Are you saying that X Factor is the same as this experiment?
Take some people that can sing. Put other people with them, to see if their singing will become more like the ones who can sing.
As a test, introduce others, with brain damage, as a control.
Hmmmm. You might be onto something here. It would certainly explain a lot...
Make with the clicky for the singing mice. Tra la!
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