Bats can use 'vocal learning' to change their tune
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 - 09:30
in Biology & Nature
Humans learn to speak by mimicking speech sounds. Are there other mammals who can learn sounds by imitation? In an experimental study, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen and the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich show that adult bats can learn to change their social calls by imitating modified calls. Studying vocal learning in bats is an important step in discovering the genetic and neural basis of human spoken language.