Mice may well be musical
New research has revealed that mice may have the ability to learn songs based on the sounds they hear, and that they share some behavioural and brain mechanisms involved in vocal learning with song birds and humans.
Scientists in the US found that when male mice were housed together, they learned to match the pitch of their songs to each other. It has already been established that male mice sing complex ultrasonic songs when exposed to females, but it has long been assumed that they were incapable of modifying their sequence or pitch.
But now, the new research suggests mice have the brain circuits and behavioural attributes which are consistent with vocal learning - a phenomenon previously thought to be limited in the natural world only to some birds, whales, dolphins, sea lions, bats and elephants.
Dr Erich Jarvis, from Duke University in North Carolina, oversaw the study. He said: "In mice we find that the pathways that are at least modulating these vocalisations are in the forebrain, in places where you actually find them in humans."
However, he says the study does not have clear evidence that mice have the very same vocal abilities as birds and humans, and believes there is a spectrum where difference species have vocal skills to different degrees. He explained: "We think mice are intermediate in this ability between a chicken and a song bird, or even a non human primate and a human."
Other scientists, however, are less certain, including Dr Kurt Hammerschmidt, a vocal communication expert at the German Primate Centre in Goettingen, who was less convinced by the study's claim about the vocal behaviour of male mice due to the number of animals used.
The full details of the study can be found in the Journal, Plos One.
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