Neuroscientists Discover Key Gene to Language: The Origins of Speech

Human language is unique in many ways. It allows us to express our thoughts, feelings and actions. Now, neuroscientists may have just found the origins of language; they've discovered that a gene mutation that arose more than half a million years ago may have been key to humans' unique ability to produce and understand speech.

The gene in question is called Foxp2. This gene actually makes it easier to transform new experiences into routine procedures. For example, mice that were engineered to express humanized Foxp2 learned how to run a maze much more quickly than normal mice.

The protein produced by Foxp2 is a transcription factor, which means that it turns other genes on and off. The scientists found that Foxp2 appears to turn on genes involved in the regulation of synaptic connections between neurons. Not only that, but it causes enhanced dopamine activity in a part of the striatum that is involved in forming procedures.

So what does this have to do with language? Scientists believe that Foxp2 may help humans with a key component of learning language, such as transforming experiences, like hearing the word "glass" when we are shown a glass of water, into nearly automatic association of that word with objects that look and function like glasses.

"This is an important brick in the wall saying that the form of the gene that allowed us to speak may have something to do with a special kind of learning, which takes us from having to make conscious associations in order to act to a nearly automatic-pilot way of acting based on the cues around us," said Ann Graybiel, senior author of the new study, in a news release.

In fact, it's like that the changes associated with this gene help "tune" the brain differently so that it adapts to speech and language acquisition. Currently, the scientists are investigating how Foxp2 may interact with other genes to produce effects on language.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.