Seal and sea lion brains have evolved to support volitional control of vocal behavior and learning

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cook, Peter F.; Rouse, Andrew A.; Sawyer, Eva; Miller, Karla; Berns, Gregory
• 署名单位: State University System of Florida; New College Florida; University of California System; University of California Santa Cruz; Vanderbilt University; University of Oxford; Emory University
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adx9367
• 发表日期: 2026-03-12
• 页码: 1146-1150
• 关键词: arcuate fasciculus; EVOLUTION; thalamus; cortex; vocalizations; PINNIPEDS; biology; SPEECH; stem

摘要

Seals and sea lions have highly developed volitional breathing control, to which the phocid seals add vocal production learning, including mimicry. In this work, using histology and ex vivo diffusion magnetic resonance imaging tractography, we provide evidence for a phylogenetic spectrum of accumulative neural adaptations supporting aspects of volitional vocal control across pinnipeds. Otariids and phocid seals, but not coyotes, have a direct connection between the vocal motor cortex and phonatory brainstem nuclei. Harbor seals showed hypertrophic connectivity between the anterior ventrolateral thalamus and the vocal premotor cortex-part of a forebrain circuit related to vocal learning in birds and mimicry in humans and parrots. We demonstrate that phocid seals have auditory-premotor pathways potentially related to developmental call learning.