Recent genetic contributions to the study of language

Marcos Nadal, Guillem A. Amengual-Bunyola, Catalina Ramis, Miguel Capó, Camilo José Cela-Conde

Resumen


The notion that humans are endowed with certain innate predispositions for language acquisition was revitalized with the consolidation of the generativist linguist paradigm, introduced by Noam Chomsky in the 1950s. In spite of several criticisms, it still constitutes the most extended perspective within the frame of cognitive science. The suggestion of an innate linguistic knowledge has been accompanied by an interest in identifying specific genes related to the faculty of language. This is the purpose of numerous twin, adoption, and linkage studies. However, it has taken a long time to isolate the first actual gene related with language, FOXP2. A mutation of this gene produces a speech and language disorder (Lai et al., 2001). Neuroimaging studies have allowed the identification of the brain areas related with the disorder, while genetic studies have described the gene’s evolutionary history. In the present work we review some of these studies and analyze the implications that the discovery of FOXP2 has for the study of language, its neural correlates, and its evolution. We argue that they favor a picture of language as a set of cognitive processes that have different neural correlates, arise from different processes of genetic expression, and are the results of different evolutionary episodes, but function coordinately, allowing our species to develop and use language and verbal communication.

 

Key words: Language, gene, FOXP2, brain, cognitive neuroscience, language disorder, development, language evolution, communication, FMRI.


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