You know how that guy at the karaoke bar singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " sounds a little off after he's had a few drinks? The same goes for buzzed birds, according to a team led by researchers from Oregon Health & Science University. Posted on 12/30/2014 9:06:55 AM PST by Red Badger
You know how that guy at the karaoke bar singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " sounds a little off after he's had a few drinks? The same goes for buzzed birds, according to a team led by researchers from Oregon Health & Science University.
For a study published in PLoS ONE, scientists found that when they got some unsuspecting zebra finches drunk, the birds slurred their songs. The findings could help scientists study the neural processes underlying birdsong - and shed light on human speech.
While many scientists want to understand alcohol's effects on such a complex system as speech, it's difficult to perform the necessary studies on humans, which is why many researchers turn to birds.
Scientists who want to study the origins of human language often study zebra finches, in part because the two species seem to share a number of similarities. For example, they both have to learn how to make complex sequences of sound by learning from those around them. In the case of humans, that's usually a child's parents. In the case of zebra finches, it's usually the birds' fathers (only the males actually sing).
"There are remarkable analogies in how zebra finch song and human speech are learned and produced," the study authors pointed out.
For this paper, researchers gave white grape juice to one group of birds, and gave a mixture of the juice and ethanol to another group. They found a number of effects on different aspects of birdsong - particularly on amplitude and entropy. The birds weren't able to sing as loudly, and they couldn't keep their song's normal structure stable.
It did not affect all aspects of the finches' birdsong equally, however. The scientists think their research offers clues about which parts of the brain the alcohol is disrupting.
Oddly enough, the birds with the spiked drinks didn't seem to suffer the sorts of issues drunken humans face, such as being unable to walk in a straight line. The birds seemed to suffer no drooped wings, no closed eyes, no sudden sluggishness.
"We did not detect visible effects on the birds' general behaviors or health, as indicated by the normal appearance of feathers and the ability to perch, feed, maintain normal posture and fly inside the cage," the study authors wrote.
Explore further: Zebra finches are sensitive to emotional cues in human speech
You should see them try to operate heavy equipment. Brother, you don’t want to be anywhere near ‘em.
Never thought of booze in the bird bath....Can’t wait till spring.
Good grief. More of our money p!ssed away.
This sentence made no sense to me:
“While many scientists want to understand alcohol’s effects on such a complex system as speech, it’s difficult to perform the necessary studies on humans, which is why many researchers turn to birds.”
I can hardly think of a lower-overhead experiment. Neighborhood bar, pop for a few drinks, presto, peer-reviewed perfection.
With humans you have dialectical problems and possible local variants of even those dialects.....................
That’s why I heard those birds singing “Louie, Louie” the other day.
Well, thank God this is finally cleared up. I’ve been wondering about the off-key warbling I sometimes hear.
Headline: Birdbrains Study Birds’ Brains
[Conclusion - Give birds alcohol, and they get drunk. Thank you, taxpayers.]
Birds have been getting into Teresa's raisins again, have they?
While many scientists want to understand alcohol’s effects on such a complex system as speech, it’s difficult to perform the necessary studies on humans,
All they had to due is check out a cowboy bar at 1am Saturday night
Its kinda mean to treat birds that way.
Yes, the contraction “it’s” would have been correct there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.