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Human Language Gene Changes the Sound of Mouse Squeaks
from the New York Times (Registration Required)
People have a deep desire to communicate with animals, as is evident from the way they converse with their dogs, enjoy myths about talking animals or devote lifetimes to teaching chimpanzees how to speak. A delicate, if tiny, step has now been taken toward the real thing: the creation of a mouse with a human gene for language.
The gene, FOXP2, was identified in 1998 as the cause of a subtle speech defect in a large London family, half of whose members have difficulties with articulation and grammar.
... Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have now genetically engineered a strain of mice whose FOXP2 gene has been swapped out for the human version. ... [And] it is perhaps surprising that possession of the human version of FOXP2 changes the sounds that mice use to communicate with other mice, as well as other aspects of brain function.
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