The birds live in a breezy outdoor aviary. ![]() Photo: Paulius MusteikisĮuropean starlings may be considered non-native pests by many (including Wisconsin farmers), but they exhibit remarkable vocal communication skills in different social contexts. Every summer, Lauren Riters and her graduate students refurbish the starlings' aviaries and begin observing them. “By studying conserved neural pathways that regulate the motivation to communicate, we provide new information on how this can go amiss,” Riters says. “It became so clear to me, during the COVID-19 pandemic, how painful it is to be separated from social groups and how rewarding social interactions can be.”įor the last 20 years, the Riters lab has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the motivation to communicate in songbirds. “My lab members and I are really interested in the role that reward plays in shaping communication,” Riters says. The research may also lead to treatments to restore positive social interactions in humans, where they’ve gone awry. Her work with European starlings-a species that gathers in huge groups in the fall and holds noisy confabs that sound, even to the casual listener, like animated conversations-reveals exciting new insights into the motivation to flock and the deep rewards of singing together. Riters studies the neural regulation of vocal communication in songbirds and is particularly interested in how the brain’s natural motivation and reward systems respond to social stimuli. And while mammal brains and bird brains may look completely different from one another today, many neuroanatomical connections and neurochemicals remain the same, according to biologist Lauren Riters. ![]() It’s a neural process that’s been conserved for over 300 million years, since the time when birds and mammals shared a common ancestor. We love to gather in groups and chirp about whatever comes to mind, and there’s a biological reason that’s so: The activity triggers the natural reward system of the brain. Humans, like songbirds, are pro-social animals. Taking a seat, you feel ridiculously lighthearted, your worries on hold for an hour or two, as you turn to the friend who biked here to meet you. ![]() It feels good to walk through this happy hum. The sound is ambient, swelling, punctuated with laughter. On a cool evening in early fall, the Memorial Union Terrace is alive with voices.
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