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If you are talking about importance of communication, learning of vocalizations, auditory feedback for the learning and maintenance of vocal communication and function of the vocal apparatus - then birds actually do come the closest.
If you mean mimicking human speech, then Jose is correct - parrots would be the closest in that respect.
Beth
*************************************************************** Beth Brittan-Powell, PhD Dept of Psychology 2123A Bio-Psyc Building Office phone: 301-405-2978 *************************************************************** >>> Josà Ignacio AlcÃntara <jia10@xxxxxxxxx> 3/2/2011 4:02 AM >>> I think that most of what we can infer about the functional organisation of the human auditory cortical system comes from the neuroanatomy and neurophysiological studies of the Macaque brain. The problem with this is that vocalisation isn't an important form of communication in this species. Even if we can assume similarities b/w the functional organisation of the macaque and human (auditory) brain, functional specialisation must diverge in the two species at, or before, the point where speech-specific processing begins in humans. Don't know about the closest animal model to human vocalisation. If you're looking for a good vocal match, it seems to me a parrot does a pretty good job, not only because the vocalisation is intelligible, but also because the sound quality is disturbingly similar to human speech. But I don't think this is what you were after?
Jose
On 2 Mar 2011, at 08:33, Pete Howell wrote:
_______________________________________
Dr Josà Ignacio AlcÃntara
Department of Experimental Psychology
University of Cambridge
Downing Street
Cambridge, UK
CB2 3EB
Phone: +44 (0)1223 764412
Fax: +44 (0)1223 333564
Fellow of Fitzwilliam College
Storey's Way
Cambridge, UK
CB3 0DG
Phone: +44 (0)1223 472126
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