Month: September 2022

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend and concludes this weekend on the evolution of language. This author reaches into the genetic fossil record via taxonomy to look for physical traces for a phenomenon that left few. Arguably, much of conscious thought requires language, but unconscious thought appears different. https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

LANGUAGE GENE CANDIDATE. “Fortunately, a combination of hard work and luck has provided the first language-related gene that is both the same in all normal human populations and functionally different from that of chimpanzees.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

LANGUAGE GENE. “Called Forkhead-box P2, or FOXP2, this gene is a member of a large and ancient gene family that codes transcription factors (proteins that bind to DNA, thus regulating the expression of other genes).” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

FAMILIAL STUDIES. “The gene was first identified clinically, by virtue of a deleterious mutation in a large British family, using a combination of traditional cognitive neuropsychology and Mendelian genetics.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

SPEECH PATHOLOGY. “Affected members of the family have a number of difficulties, focused on problems with oro-motor praxis including speech production and non-speech oral movements, and including some less distinct cognitive and perceptual deficits.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

FALSE STARTS. “Early reports that this mutation affected only morphological syntax leading to the misleading term ‘grammar gene’, were based on little data and inadequate controls, and have been widely repudiated.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

DISEASE KNOCKOUTS. “However, the correction of this misinterpretation in no way diminishes the importance of FOXP2, given the importance of increased oro-motor control in the evolution of spoken language. Studies of affected members using noninvasive brain imaging have already begun to uncover the anatomical and physiological underpinnings of the deficits caused by the mutated allele.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

CANDIDATE SEQUENCED. “The isolation of the gene to a particular region of chromosome 7, aided by the fortuitous discovery of an unrelated individual with similar symptoms and a closely-related mutation, allowed researchers to finally isolate and sequence the FOXP2 gene.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

PHYLOGENETIC STUDIES. “Shortly thereafter, researchers compared the DNA sequence of this gene in multiple human populations with that of the mouse and chimpanzee (and other apes).” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

A BINGO MOMENT. “The human version of the gene is functionally identical in all normal populations worldwide, but differs significantly from our nearest animal relatives, the chimpanzees.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn