A Human Language Gene
What makes us unique in the animal kingdom is our highly evolved ability to communicate.
Before humans developed complex languages, they learned to gesture. This stimulated the enhancement of areas in our brains related to language processing and development.
Our social structures grew more complex, forcing improvements in how we communicated. Humans developed new tools that required new words, and more complex languages were also necessary to pass down knowledge. As cultural rituals and storytelling emerged, language became even richer. The human vocal tract and neural networks evolved to support this more sophisticated communication.
Scientists are investigating whether we possess the so-called “human language” genes that enable complex vocal communication. One current theory suggests that this provided us with an advantage over our prehistoric cousins, the Denisovans and Neanderthals, who became extinct 30,000 years ago.
A new study on the NOVA-one gene found that our version differs from our extinct cousins and other mammals. The human gene produces a protein with a single amino acid change in its protein sequence. When researchers engineered mice with this gene, the baby mice made higher frequency squeaks. Since males’ higher squeaks are attractive to females, this may give them a mating advantage later in life.
We knew speech and language was powerful but it may have been the very thing that ensured our survival!
More Information
Scientists Put a Human Language Gene Into Mice And Changed Their Voice
A new contender for a human 'language gene' can change the way that mice squeak when it is incorporated into their DNA. The gene is called NOVA1, and in our own species, it is remarkably unique. While virtually all other mammals have the same NOVA1 variant in their genetic code, a single change of an amino acid is seen in the human version.
A humanized NOVA1 splicing factor alters mouse vocal communications
Fossil records indicate that modern humans (Homo sapiens) emerged 200,000–300,000 years ago as the predominant species from a common ancestral population. Humans differ significantly from their closest living relatives, the great apes, particularly in their ability to communicate through complex learned vocal communication, a necessary component of spoken language. This complexity is driven by some anatomical adaptions of the vocal tract and intricate neural networks linking various brain regions. However, the genetic basis underlying these specialized human traits remains to be fully identified.