Scientists Discover a Uniquely Human Gene Linked to Spoken Language

And when geneticists put it in mice, they squeaked in more complex ways

Hiya!

As a writer, I love language and all the creative ways we use it, but as a human, complex language is one of the most valuable tools we’ve ever created. And as far as scientists can tell, we’re the only species that has evolved language to the extent that we have, which is why they’re eager to understand how we’ve developed the ability.

After all, our species had to evolve specific anatomical features and neural networks to enable our ancestors to form and communicate words and sentences — both of which scientists already have a broad understanding of.

What’s more of a mystery is the genetic component of speech, which orchestrated the entire evolution of our features and thus, our complex language ability. However, a recent study may change that. Researchers identified what appears to be a Homo-sapien-specific language gene. They even implanted it into the brains of mice, which made them squeak in more complex ways.

NOVA1 Gene

We aren’t the only species that uses sounds to communicate with each other. Many, if not most, animals do, and some species even use vocalizations for more than signaling warnings.

For instance, elephants have unique names they call each other by, and have enough distinct vocalizations and stomach rumblings to create a dictionary. Whales also have surprisingly sophisticated communication that some researchers believe rivals our own.

Scientists have spent years searching for various genes involved in animal speech evolution and have found some, but what they really want is to locate a specific gene that separates our human language abilities from the rest of the animal kingdom.

Over time, experts identified a few language-related genes shared among many animal species, such as the FOXP2 gene, which was first discovered in 1998. However, it wasn’t associated with speech and language until 2013. Humans have the FOXP2 gene, but so do other animals, including rodents, birds, reptiles, and fish. That said, there is a particular interest in the gene because mutations within it have been linked to human speech disorders.

Beyond we Homo sapiens, neuroscientist and physician at Rockefeller University, Robert Darnell’s early research found that other human species, such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans, also possessed the FOXP2 gene, which, while exciting, suggests it’s not the gene that sets Homo sapiens apart.

However, Darnell also discovered a different gene linked to language, called NOVA1, which he’s been studying for decades and has located in many animals, including birds and other mammals.

What’s particularly special about NOVA1 is that, at some point, it mutated by altering a single amino acid, which created a variant of the gene called I197V. And it appears that I197V only exists in humans.

A team of geneticists from The Rockefeller University and the Simons Center for Quantitative Biology in New York, including Darnell, decided to investigate the seemingly uniquely human I197V NOVA1 gene even more closely and were stunned by what they discovered.

The Study