Japanese Scientists are Developing Mice Birds Sing
by Japanese scientists say they have produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered "evolution" which they hope will shed light on the origins of human language.
Japanese scientists say they have produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered “evolution” which they hope will shed light on the origins of human language
A team of researchers at the University of Osaka are breeding genetically modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and are more likely to develop mutations.
The ‘tweeting’ mouse was created as part of the team’s ‘Evolved Mouse Project. They hope it will shed new light on how languages evolve.
The team hopes they will provide clues on how human language evolved, just as researchers in other countries study songbirds such as finches to help them understand the origins of human language.
‘Mice are better than birds to study because they are mammals and much closer to humans in their brain structures and other biological aspects,’ Uchimura said.
‘We are watching how a mouse that emits new sounds would affect ordinary mice in the same group… in other words if it has social connotations,’ he said, adding that ordinary mice squeak mainly under stress.
Uchimura said their chirps ‘may be some sort of expressions of their emotions or bodily conditions.’
The team has found that ordinary mice that grew up with singing mice emitted fewer ultrasound squeaks than others. This could mean that communication methods can spread in the same group like a dialect.
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