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Language is one of the few skills that set humans apart from all other animals.
That’s why scientists have long tried to determine its origins and understand its evolution.
A team of Rockefeller University researchers, led by Yoko Tajima,publishedtheir findings in the journalNature Communications.
Photo: lightpoet/Depositphotos
The study highlights a gene known as NOVA1.
This made scientists wonder if NOVA1 had a particular effect and gave Homo Sapiens an evolutionary advantage.
To find answers, the researchers put a human version of NOVA1 into mice.
These animals communicate in chirps and squeaks in an ultrasonic range that humans can’t hear.
The difference was particularly striking when the modified male mice tried to attract potential female mates.
We thought, wow.
We did not expect that, Darnell admits.
It was one of those really surprising moments in science.
The version of NOVA1 used in the experiment is overwhelmingly dominant in the human population.
In a database of 650,058 genomes from around the world, it was only absent from six.
Our discovery could have clinical relevance in many ways, ranging from developmental disorders to neurodegenerative disease.
