Vocalization is a common means of communication across vertebrates, but the evolutionary origins of the neural circuits controlling these behaviors are not clear. Peripheral mechanisms of sound production vary widely: fish produce sounds with a swimbladder or pectoral fins; amphibians, reptiles, and mammalians vocalize using a larynx; birds vocalize with a syrinx. Despite the diversity of vocal effectors across taxa, there are many similarities in the neural circuits underlying the control of these organs. Do similarities in vocal circuit structure and function indicate that vocal behaviors first arose in a single common ancestor, or have similar neural circuits arisen independently multiple times during evolution? In this review, we describe the hindbrain circuits that are involved in vocal production across vertebrates. Given that vocalization depends on respiration in most tetrapods, it is not surprising that vocal and respiratory hindbrain circuits across distantly related species are anatomically intermingled and functionally linked. Such vocal‐respiratory circuit integration supports the hypothesis that vocal evolution involved the expansion and functional diversification of breathing circuits. Recent phylogenetic analyses, however, suggest vocal behaviors arose independently in all major tetrapod clades, indicating that similarities in vocal control circuits are the result of repeated co‐options of respiratory circuits in each lineage. It is currently unknown whether vocal circuits across taxa are made up of homologous neurons, or whether vocal neurons in each lineage arose from developmentally and evolutionarily distinct progenitors. Integrative comparative studies of vocal neurons across brain regions and taxa will be required to distinguish between these two scenarios.

中文翻译：

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鼓舞人心的歌曲：呼吸回路在脊椎动物嗓音行为演变中的作用。

发声是在脊椎动物之间进行交流的一种常见方式，但是控制这些行为的神经回路的进化起源尚不清楚。声音产生的外围机制差异很大：鱼类产生带有泳囊或胸鳍的声音；两栖动物，爬行动物和哺乳动物使用喉部发出声音；鸟用syrinx发声。尽管整个类群的声音效应器各不相同，但控制这些器官的神经回路仍存在许多相似之处。声音回路结构和功能的相似性是否表明声音行为首先在单个共同祖先中出现，或者在进化过程中是否多次独立出现相似的神经回路？在这篇综述中，我们描述了涉及脊椎动物声带产生的后脑回路。鉴于发声取决于大多数四足动物的呼吸，因此，在远处相关物种上的发声和呼吸后脑回路在解剖学上相互混合并在功能上联系在一起就不足为奇了。这种声音-呼吸回路的整合支持了这样的假设，即声音演变涉及呼吸回路的扩展和功能多样化。然而，最近的系统发育分析表明，在所有主要的四足动物进化枝中，声音行为是独立出现的，这表明在声音控制回路中的相似性是每个谱系中呼吸回路重复选择的结果。目前尚不清楚跨类群的声音回路是否由同源神经元组成，或者每个谱系中的声音神经元是否来自发育和进化上不同的祖细胞。