A study has shown that intoxicated finches 'slur' their songs and further study could help show the effects of alcohol on the human brain.

The study, published in PLOS One, focused on the songs produced by zebra finches after they had consumed juice containing alcohol. Researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University conducted the experiment due to the similarities between the way birds learn to sing and humans learn to talk.

Once the finches were drunk, with blood alcohol levels around .08, they began to alter their song. According to the study, "the most pronounced effects were decreased amplitude and increased entropy," which will sound familiar to those prone to whispered rambling tales after a night on the beer.

A key observation was that not all parts of the song were equally affected. Similar to human speech, finch songs are made up of specific syllables and some were more altered than others. This suggests that some parts of the brain related to speech are affected by alcohol more than others.

Further research will aim to study the syllable effect further, as well as looking at whether or not alcohol consumption limits the ability to learn new songs.

Online Editors