Scientists bind the gene to the emergence of the spoken language

• A new study connects a particular gene and a protein variant found only in humans with the origins of the spoken language.
• The researchers used the editing of the CRISPR gene to replace the Nova1 protein found in mice by the type exclusively found in humans, and this changed the way the animals vocalized when they were called.
• The study author, Dr. Robert Darnell, hopes that recent work could lead to new ways of dealing with problems related to speech.

Why did humans started to speak? Scientists suggest that genetics played a big role – and they say that the evolution of this singular capacity was the key to our survival.

A new study connects a particular gene to the old origins of the spoken language, proposing that a protein variant found only in humans may have helped us to communicate in a new way. The speech allowed us to share information, coordinate activities and transmit knowledge, which gives us an advantage over cousins ​​that are extinguished such as Neanderthals and Denisovans.

The new study is “a good first step to start looking at the specific genes” which can affect the development of speech and languages, said Liza Finestack at the University of Minnesota, which was not involved in research.

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What scientists learn can one day help people with speaking problems.

The genetic variants that researchers considered one of the various genes “which contributed to the emergence of Homo sapiens as a dominant species, which we are today,” said Dr. Robert Darnell, an author of the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Skull casts are seen in an exposure of early human species inside the Smithsonian Hall of Human Origins on July 20, 2023, at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington. (AP photo / Jacquelyn Martin, file)

Darnell is studying protein – called Nova1 and known to be crucial for brain development – since the early 1990s. For the latest research, scientists from his laboratory at the New York Rockefeller University used the edition of CRISPR genes to replace the protein Nova1 found in mice by an exclusively human type to test the real effects of the genetic variant. To their surprise, it changed the way animals vocalized when they were called.

Baby mice with the human variant have grinned differently from normal litter companions when their mom came. Adult male mice with the variant chird differently from their normal counterparts when they saw a female in heat.

The two are contexts where mice are motivated to speak, said Darnell, “and they talked differently” with the human variant, illustrating its role in speech.

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It is not the first time that a gene has been linked to speech. In 2001, British scientists declared that they had discovered the first gene linked to a language and speech disorder.

Called FoxP2, it was called the human language gene. But although FoxP2 was involved in human language, it turned out that the variant of modern humans was not unique to us. Subsequent research has revealed that it had been shared with the Neanderthals. The Nova1 variant in modern humans, on the other hand, is exclusively in our species, said Darnell.

The presence of a variant of gene is not the only reason why people can speak. The capacity also depends on things like anatomical characteristics in the human throat and the areas of the brain that work together to allow people to speak and understand the language.

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Darnell hopes that recent work help not only people better understand their origins, but also leads to new ways to deal with speech problems.

Finestack from the University of Minnesota said it is more likely that genetic results could one day allow scientists to detect, very early in life, which may need speech and language interventions.

“This is certainly a possibility,” she said.