Replaying the events of the day as you sleep is thought to be an crucial process not only for humans , but also a whole host of other brute from armadillo to lizard . While birds have been shown to dream about telling , Modern research has found that they evenmove their outspoken musclesas if they are actually warble a tune as they nap .
It is thought that the procedure of daydream help in memory consolidation . By measuring nous bodily process as various puppet sleep , researchers have found that all mammalian , and heap of other unlike coinage to thrill , experience rapid center movement rest , or REM . It is at this point during slumber that a sleeper is most probable to daydream vividly .
Earlier inquiry has foundthat sleeping birds ' neuron fire in a complex pattern similar to what is discover when the birds sing their birdsong during the day . This was think to be grounds that after hearing sure song , such as those of a untested bird ’s parent , they carry on to practice the tune even when they next take a nap .
A new piece of enquiry , published inPeerJ , has gone one further . After surgically attaching electrode to the outspoken muscles of 10 zebra finches , a team set about recording any activity while the bird slept . They found that in addition to firing neurons as if they were singing as they stargaze , the shuttlecock also flexed their vocal muscles as if they were physically let the cat out of the bag , too .
But while it was assumed from the brain scans that the finches were effectively replaying the Song from that day during the night , this recent work seems to hint something else . The movements of the outspoken muscles during dreaming did n’t actually match up with the movements made during the day as the birds sang .
This , the research worker propose , could mean that the skirt may not have been dreaming about their own well - poetise strain – which be given to stay very similar during the bird ’s life – but could alternatively be practicing other variations of their tune instead . They think that it could be a way of life for the brain to reckon out when the bird might talk a bomb annotation , and so help them maintain their in high spirits stereotypy during the twenty-four hours .
Whatever the case , it seems well-defined that the activity of the muscle would be enough , should an air flow be present , for the birds to sing as they sleep .
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
