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UID:20250708T1515Z-1751987718.161-EO-39871-2@10.19.146.24
STATUS:CONFIRMED
DTSTAMP:20260418T092646Z
CREATED:20250707T190120Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250707T190120Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250717T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20250717T133000
SUMMARY: Guest Talk with Dr. Jon T. Sakata: Universality of ”universals”: p
 revalence of common speech and music patterns within birdsong
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Sakata from McGill University will present his new work on
  universals in bird song and human speech.
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html: <p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image
 -41842" src="https://psych.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/
 07/SongBird.png" alt="" width="715" height="402" /></p><blockquote><p>Join 
 us for a guest talk with Dr. Jon T. Sakata.</p></blockquote><p style="font-
 weight: 400\;">Dr. Sakata from McGill University will present his new work 
 on universals in bird song and human speech.</p><h3 style="font-weight: 400
 \;"><strong>Title<br /></strong></h3><p style="font-weight: 400\;">Universa
 lity of ”universals”: prevalence of common speech and music patterns within
  birdsong</p><h3 style="font-weight: 400\;"><strong>Abstract</strong></h3><
 p style="font-weight: 400\;">Despite the large variation in the acoustic st
 ructure of speech and music around the world\, there are numerous acoustic 
 patterns that are more common than expected by chance (i.e.\, speech or mus
 ic “universals”). Given their prevalence\, it is important to discern the f
 actors that contribute to these patterns\, and one possibility is that spee
 ch and music universals reflect biological predispositions in vocal learnin
 g and production. Songbirds offer powerful opportunities to understand the 
 biological mechanisms underlying vocal acquisition and performance. This is
  because (a) songbirds learn their vocalizations in a manner that resembles
  how humans acquire speech and music\, (b) both songbird and human vocaliza
 tions rely on the coordinated regulation of vocal and respiratory anatomy\,
  and (c) songbirds possess neural circuits for song learning and performanc
 e that are functionally analogous to those subserving speech and music. For
  this talk I will discuss the prevalence of speech and music universals wit
 hin the songs of songbirds and highlight the contribution of learning predi
 spositions to the emergence of these patterns.</p><h3 style="font-weight: 4
 00\;"><strong>Bio</strong></h3><p style="font-weight: 400\;"><a href="https
 ://www.mcgill.ca/biology/jon-sakata">Dr. Jon T. Sakata</a> is a Professor i
 n the Department of Biology at McGill University. He received his PhD in Ne
 uroscience from the University of Texas at Austin (with David Crews and Fra
 ncisco Gonzalez-Lima) and then trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the Uni
 versity of California\, San Francisco (with Michael Brainard). His lab inve
 stigates biological mechanisms underlying song learning and performance in 
 songbirds as well as parallels between birdsong\, speech\, and music. His r
 esearch is funded by the CIHR\, NSERC\, FRQNT\, and CFI.</p><h3><strong>UBC
  Psychology Faculty Hosts</strong></h3><p><a href="https://psych.ubc.ca/pro
 file/kiran-soma/">Dr. Kiran Soma</a> and <a href="https://psych.ubc.ca/prof
 ile/janet-werker/">Dr. Janet Werker</a></p>
CATEGORIES:Featured News and Events
LOCATION:Kenny Room 2101
GEO:49.263719;-123.254803
URL;VALUE=URI:https://psych.ubc.ca/events/event/guest-talk-jon-sakata/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://psych.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/07/SongBird.png
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DTSTART:20250309T100000
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