德国莱布尼茨进化和生物多样性科学研究所Mirjam Knrnschild、Ahana A. Fernandez等研究人员合作发现，发声学习蝙蝠的咿呀声与人类婴儿的咿呀声相似。该项研究成果发表在2021年8月20日出版的《科学》杂志上。

研究人员调查了大银线蝠（Saccopteryx bilineata）的咿呀声行为，这是一种能够学习发声的蝙蝠。研究人员分析了20只蝙蝠幼崽在3个月发育过程中的咿呀声，并将其特征与人类婴儿的咿呀声相比较。结果表明，蝙蝠幼崽的咿呀声具有与人类婴儿咿呀声相同的八个特征，包括明显的重复性和节奏性特征。两个哺乳动物物种之间在发声发育方面的这些相似之处，为今后比较蝙蝠和人类的认知和神经分子机制以及咿呀声的适应性功能提供了可能性。

据悉，咿呀声是婴儿语言发展中的一个生产里程碑。在非人类哺乳动物中，关于咿呀声的证据很少，这妨碍了跨物种的比较。

附：英文原文

Title: Babbling in a vocal learning bat resembles human infant babbling

Author: Ahana A. Fernandez, Lara S. Burchardt, Martina Nagy, Mirjam Knrnschild

Issue&Volume: 2021/08/20

Abstract: Babbling is a production milestone in infant speech development. Evidence for babbling in nonhuman mammals is scarce, which has prevented cross-species comparisons. In this study, we investigated the conspicuous babbling behavior of Saccopteryx bilineata, a bat capable of vocal production learning. We analyzed the babbling of 20 bat pups in the field during their 3-month ontogeny and compared its features to those that characterize babbling in human infants. Our findings demonstrate that babbling in bat pups is characterized by the same eight features as babbling in human infants, including the conspicuous features reduplication and rhythmicity. These parallels in vocal ontogeny between two mammalian species offer future possibilities for comparison of cognitive and neuromolecular mechanisms and adaptive functions of babbling in bats and humans.

DOI: 10.1126/science.abf9279

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/373/6557/923