Language Skills Tied To Ancient Gene Mutation

WASHINGTON: Scientists have found that a gene mutation that arose more than half a million years ago may be key to humans' unique ability to produce and understand speech.

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several European universities have shown that the human version of a gene called Foxp2 makes it easier to transform new experiences into routine procedures.

When they engineered mice to express humanised Foxp2, the mice learned to run a maze much more quickly than normal mice.

Foxp2 may help humans with a key component of learning language - transforming experiences, such as hearing the word "glass" when we are shown a glass of water, into a nearly automatic association of that word with objects that look and function like glasses, said Ann Graybiel, an MIT Institute Professor and a senior author of the study.

Foxp2 is one of several genes that scientists believe may have contributed to the development of linguistic skills in humans.

The gene was first identified in a group of family members who had severe difficulties in speaking and understanding speech, and who were found to carry a mutated version of the Foxp2 gene.

Svante Paabo, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and author of the new study, found that the mice with humanised Foxp2 were better at learning to run a T-shaped maze, in which the mice must decide whether to turn left or right at a T-shaped junction, based on the texture of the maze floor, to earn a food reward.