“How do human speak language?” Language is a prominent behavioral phenotype for human. Speaking language is a crucial trait for human socio-cultural development. However, we must acquire such languages through vocal learning process during post-natal development. How do we learn language? And what changes in the brain accompany vocal learning? Presently, we do not have enough answers to these basic questions because there are obvious ethical limitations on using human developing brains for research. I would like to understand these questions from a neurobiological mechanistic point of view: “biolinguistics”, at the molecular, genetic, and neural circuit levels, as a new frontier of biology in the 21st century.

In my laboratory at Hokkaido University, to move toward understanding of language from a neuroscience/neuroethological standpoint, we are using songbirds as animal models. Like human language acquisition, juvenile songbirds learn tutor songs during a critical/sensitive period of song learning after hatching. It is also well known that avian and mammalian species share conserved neural circuits and gene expression in the brain, suggesting that research findings in songbirds can be applied to other vertebrates including humans. Using the songbird brain, it is possible to understand “When and how do animals develop vocal learning?” I believe that this is one of unique research strategy for elucidating the mechanisms for human language at the molecular/genetic neuroscience levels.

It has been over 20 years since I started laboratory research activities. Initially, I was a medical student at the age of 23, hoping to become a medical doctor. However, chance exposure to molecular biology experiments made me fall in love with such basic science because of the clear logic involved. So, I opted to be a basic scientist instead of a medical doctor. However, the decision was a big challenge for me because I was not certain of my survival in science in the long term. My doubts were partly because there were already many professionals who are smart and work hard in the field. So, I have tried to polish up my philosophy in science by getting feedback from my mentors and colleagues. Since then, I have fortunately experienced exciting findings, inspirations, meeting new nice colleagues/friends/students from the world. These accomplishments were beyond my expectations when I decided to become a scientist at 23 years old. I believe now that, when you are honest about your scientific questions and commit passionately to them, your original findings are inevitable. This may be one of your great potentials in your life. If you can imagine this, and if you have similar (but not the same) attitude to science, I open a door of opportunity for such young student to explore new ideas as a colleague in my lab.