LIN 291 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Foxp2, Temporal Lobe, Pseudoscience
Document Summary
Gene - the basic physical and functional unit of heredity. Foxp2 - a protein found in humans as part of the whole foxp2 gene and a handful of animals, required for development of speech and language abilities. Located on chromosome 7, known as the language gene, but really only partially true, as other genes are also involved in language development, but this is the first concrete finding. From a case study of the ke family in the 1980s. Several children of this family were found to have developmental verbal dyspraxia, marked by having a child have difficulty in pronouncing sounds/words without muscle issues. Foxp2 in animals - substitution of 2 amino acids in primates, 3 in mice, 7 in zebra finches. It is unclear exactly how language started, but we reviewed several differen ttheories and approaches.
