'Humanized' Mice Speak Volumes About Evolutionary Past

New research shows that mice carrying a "humanized version" of a gene believed to influence speech and language reveals important new insights into our evolutionary past.

Researchers says that changes in FOXP2 occurred over the course of human evolution and are the best candidates for genetic changes that might explain why we can speak.

FOXP2 is a gene that is implicated in the development of language skills, including grammatical competence.

The new research indicates that Mice with the human FOXP2 show changes in brain circuits that have previously been linked to human speech, and the genetically altered mouse pups also have qualitative differences in ultrasonic vocalizations they use when placed outside the comfort of their mothers' nests.

Although FOXP2 is active in many other tissues of the body, the altered version did not appear to have other effects on the mice, which appeared to be generally healthy.

Those differences offer a window into the evolution of speech and language capacity in the human brain and it will now be important to further explore the mechanistic basis of the gene's effects.

Reference

Cell Press (2009, May 31). Why Can We Talk? 'Humanized' Mice Speak Volumes About Evolutionary Past. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/05/090528120643.htm