近日，加拿大麦吉尔大学Jon T. Sakata等合作在研究中取得进展。他们发现，鸟类鸣唱中普遍存在的声学模式与人类言语和歌曲中的常见模式相似，且这种相似性并不系统性地依赖于发声学习。2026年10月29日出版的《科学》杂志发表了这项成果。

鸟类鸣唱常被描述为人类言语和歌曲的类似物，但要确定这种类比关系及其机制基础，需要进行大规模的比较。研究人员分析了全球语料库，涵盖两个发声学习分支（鸣禽和蜂鸟）及相关非发声学习分支（亚鸣禽和夜鹰）中的367种鸟类（约5,900首鸣唱中的超过74,500个发声单元），以及52种人类语言（超过800个言语或歌曲短语中的超过15,000个单元），揭示了鸟类鸣唱中的共同模式，这些模式与人类言语和歌曲中的普遍模式相似，但与言语或歌曲的相似程度存在差异。发声学习并未系统性地影响声学模式或与人类发声的相似性。这些数据凸显了鸟类与人类发声之间的深层类比关系，以及塑造交流的趋同运动机制。

附：英文原文

Title: Pervasive patterns in bird songs resemble those in human speech and song and are independent of vocal learning

Author: Logan S. James, Kendra Oudyk, Maria I. Pescaru, Erin M. Wall, Yining Chen, William D. Pearse, Jon T. Sakata

Issue&Volume: 2026-10-29

Abstract: Bird songs are often described as analogs to human speech and songs, but expansive comparisons are necessary to determine analogy and mechanistic substrates. By analyzing global corpora consisting of 367 bird species (>74,500 vocal elements from ~5900 songs) within two clades of vocal learners (oscines and hummingbirds) and related nonlearners (suboscines and nightjars) and 52 human languages (>15,000 elements in >800 speech or song phrases), we revealed common patterns in bird songs that resemble prevalent patterns in human speech and song with variation in resemblance to speech or song. Vocal learning did not systematically affect acoustic patterning or similarity to human vocalizations. These data underscore the deep analogies between bird and human vocalizations and convergent motor mechanisms shaping communication.

DOI: 10.1126/science.adr9983

Source:https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr9983