Research Scientist, Language Development Subgroup, Laboratory for Molecular Mechanism of Brain Development, RIKEN Center for Brain Science

Human language can create new meanings by arranging the order of sounds. This is a unique and a special features of language among animal vocalization. But, let’s think the language as one of the acoustic signals for communication. In this regard human language is also one of the acoustic tools like other animal sounds. While most of animals use innate vocalization for communication, a few animals can learn vocalizations after birth; for examples, language acquisition in humans and song learning in birds. I have studied how birds learn songs from their fathers after hatching and I tried to put the process in an evolutionary framework. Bird songs are affected by the reared environment as well as by the innate predisposition. The innate predisposition itself would have changed through evolution. Similarly, human language acquisition should also have been shaped by the evolutionary process. I would like to understand the mechanism of human language acquisition by linking the evolutionary approach and the language specific approach.

Wada, K., Hayase, S., Imai, R., Mori, C., Kobayashi, M., Liu, W.C., Takahasi, M. and Okanoya, K. (2013) “Differential androgen receptor expression and DNA methylation state in striatum song nucleus Area X between wild and domesticated songbird strains” European Journal of Neuroscience, 38, 2600-2610.

Lipkind, D., Marcus, G., Bemis, D., Sasahara, K., Jacoby, N., Takahasi, M., Suzuki, K., Feher, O., Ravbar, P., Okanoya, K. and Tchernichovski, O. (2013) “Stepwise acquisition of vocal combinatorial capacity in songbirds and human infants” Nature, 498, 104-108.

Takahasi, M. and Okanoya, K. (2013) “An invisible sign stimulus: completion of occluded visual images in the Bengalese finch in an ecological context” NeuroReport, 24, 370-374.

Takahasi, M., Yamada, H. and Okanoya, K. (2010) “Statistical and prosodic cues for song segmentation learning by Bengalese finches (Lonchura striata var. domestica)” Ethology, 116, 481-489.

Takahasi, M. and Okanoya, K. (2010) “Song learning in wild and domesticated strains of White-rumped munia, Lonchura striata, compared by cross-fostering procedures: domestication increases song variability by decreasing strain-specific bias” Ethology, 116, 396-405.

Takahasi, M., Kagawa, H., Ikebuchi, M. and Okanoya, K. (2006) “Case studies of song and call learning by a hybrid Bengalese–Zebra Finch and Bengalese-fostered Zebra Finches: Assessing innate factors in vocal learning” Ornithological Science, 5, 85-93.

Takahasi, M., Ikebuchi, M. and Okanoya, K. (2005) “Spatiotemporal properties of visual stimuli for song induction in Bengalese finches” NeuroReport, 16, 1339-1343.

Takahasi, M., Kagawa, H., Suzuki, K., Feher, O., Okanoya, K. "Evolution of vocal cultures in two strains of Bengalese finches." Behaviour 2013, Newcastle, UK, Aug, 2013

Takahasi, M., Kagawa, H., Suzuki, K., Feher, O., & Okanoya, K. (2012, March) “Divergence and convergence in vocal cultures” the 9th International Conference on the Evolution of Language, Kyoto, Japan.

Takahasi, M., Okanoya, K. “Syntactical and prosodic cues in song segmentation learning by Bengalese finches “ 7th Evolution of Language Conference, Barcelona, Spain, March, 2008

Takahasi, M., Okanoya, K. “Relaxation of focused song-learnability in domesticated Bengalese finches” 8th International Congress of Neuroethology, Vancouver, Canada, Aug, 2007

Takahasi, M., Tomizawa, I., Okanoya, K. (2006, Nov.) “Syllable chunking in Bengalese finches under multi-tutor environment" oral presentation” 4th Joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan, Hawaii, USA