And then uh jumping many years later , you know , I started to dig down into these uh brain circuits to discover that these brain circuits had parallel functions with the brain circuits for humans , even though they're by a different name like brocas and laryngo motor cortex . And most recently , we discovered not only the actual circuitry and the connectivity are similar , but the underlying genes that are expressed in these brain regions in a specialized way , different from the rest of the brain are also similar between humans and songbirds and parrots . So all the way down to the genes .
So there was a parallel here . And then uh jumping many years later , you know , I started to dig down into these uh brain circuits to discover that these brain circuits had parallel functions with the brain circuits for humans , even though they're by a different name like brocas and laryngo motor cortex . And most recently , we discovered not only the actual circuitry and the connectivity are similar , but the underlying genes that are expressed in these brain regions in a specialized way , different from the rest of the brain are also similar between humans and songbirds and parrots .
And most recently , we discovered not only the actual circuitry and the connectivity are similar , but the underlying genes that are expressed in these brain regions in a specialized way , different from the rest of the brain are also similar between humans and songbirds and parrots . So all the way down to the genes . And now we're finding the specific mutations are also similar , not always identical but similar , uh which indicates remarkable convergence for a so called complex behavior in species separated by 300 million years from the common ancestor .
We call it a can inch , right ? Uh And vice versa for the canary because there's something different about their vocal musculature or the gene or the circuitry in the brain . And with a zebra finch , even with a closely related species , if you would take a zebra finch uh young animal and in one cage next to it , place its own species , adult male , right ?
You talked about uh the robust nucleus of the archipallium . And um and these brain pathways were not found in the species who couldn't imitate . So there was a parallel here .
