When it comes to speech, parrots have the gift of gab. And the way the brains of small parrots known as budgerigars bestow this gift is remarkably similar to human speech, researchers report March 19 in Nature.
So far, budgerigars are the only animals known to have language-producing centers akin to those in humans, says Michael Long, a neuroscientist at New York University Langone Health. This “is really the first nonhuman animal in which that has been shown.” Understanding how speech gets created in budgies’ brains could help clarify what goes wrong in certain communication disorders in people.
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