Genetics / The FOXP 2 gene was discovered in a family where several members are speech impaired
by Tamara Traubman
A year ago, researchers announced that they had discovered a gene related to language. The gene was discovered in a British family, about half of whose members have a speech and language disorder, and caused great excitement: it is claimed that this is the first gene associated with the ability to speak - an ability that many scientists claim is unique to the human race. "Language", the head of the research team, Dr. Anthony Monaco from the University of Oxford in England, explained at the time, "is a unique feature of humans and the discovery of the gene is the first glimpse of what makes us human."
Yesterday, a joint team - consisting of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolution and Anthropology in Germany and researchers from the team that claims the gene is related to language - reported a finding, which they say strengthens their claim: humans have a unique version of the gene that is not found in mice and monkeys, including chimpanzees, who are our closest family members.
However, some researchers who did not participate in the study warned that it is premature to draw unequivocal conclusions, citing uncertainty regarding the statistical method used by the team. Also, some doubt the statement that the gene, known as FOXP2, is really related to language; According to them, there is a possibility that it is related to the physiological ability of speech.
The researchers compared the version of the gene found in humans to versions found in chimpanzees, gorillas, other monkeys, and mice. According to them, the gene, which has hardly changed in the evolution of mammals, suddenly changed in humans after the split between the human family and chimpanzees. According to them, the human version of the gene underwent two key changes in evolution, which today distinguish humans from other animals. Their research is expected to be published soon in the scientific journal "Nature".
The idea that human language has genetic roots was put forward following the research of the linguist Noam Chomsky, who observed that the ability to acquire language is universal and language is acquired quickly by children without being deliberately taught. The discovery of FOXP2 swept most scientists away, and many today agree that it is the first language-related gene discovered. "This is the best candidate so far proposed for the gene that allowed us to become human," said Prof. Marie-Claire King, a geneticist at the University of Washington in Seattle, in an interview with the scientific journal "Science."
However, some skeptics, who agree with Chomsky's theory, believe that it is still too early to determine the role of the FOXP2 gene. They speak indistinctly, have disorders in controlling the muscles of the throat and mouth, have difficulty forming words, understanding their meaning and using grammar. According to the skeptics, the disorder the family suffers from is not clearly defined. According to them, the gene may not be related to the perceptual processes of language at all, but to the physiological deficiencies or other factors, such as low IQ and retardation. Indeed, on special, non-linguistic IQ tests, the family members tended to score below average.
The debate surrounding FOXP2 goes beyond the boundaries of genetic research and actually reflects a debate between two opposing worldviews: one attributes enormous significance to the genome and its decoding; The other warns that a reductionist approach, which assigns heredity a decisive weight in shaping a person's destiny, may lead to a value perception in which there is no place for free will.
Verdit Ravitzky, a doctoral student in the Bioethics program at Bar Ilan University, points to images that began to appear at the same time as the project to decode the human genome, simulating the genome as a sacred text that scientists decipher for us or a Bible book; And about common statements like that of the Nobel laureate, Rento Delbco, who said: "The human DNA sequence is the reality of our species, and everything that happens in the world depends on these sequences."
According to Ravitzky, "one must be careful of concepts that reduce the degree of responsibility placed on a person in managing his life. Already today we see that despite the fierce debate that is still going on about the weight of genetics in determining a person's characteristics, the decoding of the genome is already intuitively perceived by many as an attempt to decipher the 'secret of life', the essence of humanity, that elusive core that makes a person what he is. New images present the genes as the contemporary version of the soul: eternal and having an existence independent of that of the body. According to this position, the genes will not only survive after us - they embody the essence of personal identity."
Controversy: Is language unique to humans?
The researchers who reported the discovery of the language-related gene claim, like many other researchers, that language is a unique ability for humans and that distinguishes them from other animals in nature. However, for years a handful of researchers engaged in the study of monkeys - such as Jane Goodell, who studied chimpanzees in Africa - have been claiming that language is a multifaceted ability that exists in a variety of productions.
In his book, "The Significant Others," Dr. Craig Stanford, who studies ape behavior in Africa, claims that for many years the study of language belonged exclusively to researchers whose "training was focused on humans, such as cognitive scientists and linguists, who had difficulty transferring research to the great apes without taking with them the All the biases and burdens of their training."
According to him, the researchers applied the tools they developed for the study of language in humans to chimpanzees, and after they, as expected, failed in the experiments, they determined that language is a characteristic unique to the human species.
