Gene May Explain Why We Talk, Chimps Don't

Scientists Pinpoint Mutation in Gene that Seems Key in Evolution of Speech

(AP)  Chimps, our nearest relative, don't talk. We do. Now scientists have pinpointed a mutation in a gene that might help explain the difference.

The mutation seems to have helped humans develop speech and language. It's probably not the only gene involved, but researchers found the gene looks and acts differently in chimps and humans, according to a study published online Wednesday by the journal Nature.

Lab tests showed that the human version regulated more than 100 other genes differently from the chimp version. This particular gene - called FOXP2 - mutated around the time humans developed the ability to talk.

"It's really playing a major role in chimp-human differences," said the study's author, Daniel Geschwind, a professor of neurology, psychiatry and human genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles. "You mutate this gene in humans and you get a speech and language disorder."

This tells you "what may be happening in the brain," he said.

Frances Vargha-Khadem, head of developmental cognitive neuroscience at the University College London, who wasn't part of the research, said the study "is very much in line with what we had always suspected."

Vargha-Khadem has studied people with other inherited mutations in the gene and their speech and language problems. People with a certain mutation have subtle physical differences in the lower part of the jaw, the tongue and roof of the mouth, and she suspects chimps do, too.

That physical part is important because "you can't produce the dance unless you have the feet to do the dance," she said.

Eventually, work on this gene and others could potentially lead to genetic treatments for people with certain developmental difficulties, such as autism, because it gives future researchers targets, Geschwind said.

Other outside experts warned of making too much of this finding.

While finding the molecular differences is good, it is too early and unclear to weigh what it means for language and cognitive evolution, said Marc Hauser, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University.

"I would be extremely skeptical about drawing inferences," Hauser wrote in an e-mail.

And the key question is not how, but "why did we get language," said Derek Bickerton, a linguistics professor at the University of Hawaii. He wrote the book "Adam's Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans."

Just because humans developed the ability for language, that doesn't mean it would happen automatically, Bickerton said.

"Every other species gets along just fine without it," Bickerton wrote in an e-mail. "We must have had some need that other species didn't have."

[briannorwood]

Now, if they could just figure out how to turn that damned gene off on people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck, I'll be really impressed!

[babooph]

I do not fully agree-the way Bush spoke ,he seemed to have some of those chimp genes...

[Sloughfoot]

This Man only phylosophy has been around forever. The animals of this planet have the ability to comunicate, some with audio skills and others with a vast array of display skills (body language to facial expression to name a few).

A million fish move in unison, or a thousand bird flock flies in tight formation without controllers, dipping and diving, changing point without radio, look and see look and learn.

These are the same man only advocates who have maintained and perpetrated the concept of the "Deaf and Dumb".

[Ms_enza]

On the other hand, 99.99% of what is said is not as intelligent as a chimp's grunts, so eh...

Case in point -- John Boehner... George Bush... Rush... the list is endless.

[rwsmith29456]

A parrot and even some dogs or cats can make what sounds like human speech. I wonder why they DON'T have a talking chimp that could actually understand something of what it is saying. They are certainly as smart as SOME people that talk. I guess their throats are only made for hoo-hoo hah-hah type sounds.

[stillunbanable]

Gene may explain why humans can't understand chimp's language.

[inketolstoy]

They already did this experiment. After giving the mutated gene to 200 chimps, 150 of them went to law school and all but three ran for congress. 143 of them won and several hold key positions in the senate and house. One of the ones that didn't run for congress works for CBS and several of them post regulary here on the CBS message board. Did anyone see where I left my banana latte?

[rf35]

That one that works for CBS must have been the designer of the comment section. It probably somehow makes perfect sense to it that the comments are arranged backwards and any pasted quotation marks turn into question marks. I think it also edits articles for spelling and other mistakes.

[hungry1968-17]

Cool!!

Give 'em the gene!!

Give 'em the gene!!

[briannorwood]

Oh no! Planet of the Apes here we come!

Damn them to hell! Damn them all to hell!

[Constitionalist]

Get your hands off me, you damn dirty ape!