Just read a Quora post suggesting that the FOXP2 Gene is the one big thing differentiating humans from other apes.

Consulting Wikipedia it seems that this gene is certainly not unique to humans, and “other genes are necessary for human language development, and a 2018 analysis confirmed that there was no evidence of recent positive evolutionary selection of FOXP2 in humans.[”

OTOH, lack of the gene certainly seems to have a significant impact of speech development in individuals.

Meanwhile, I had never even heard of it.

So my questions are:

Why don’t we hear more of this gene?

How significant is it?

The Rev Dodgson said:

Just read a Quora post suggesting that the FOXP2 Gene is the one big thing differentiating humans from other apes.

Consulting Wikipedia it seems that this gene is certainly not unique to humans, and “other genes are necessary for human language development, and a 2018 analysis confirmed that there was no evidence of recent positive evolutionary selection of FOXP2 in humans.

There’s lots of stuff we haven’t heard about yet.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Just read a Quora post suggesting that the FOXP2 Gene is the one big thing differentiating humans from other apes.

Consulting Wikipedia it seems that this gene is certainly not unique to humans, and “other genes are necessary for human language development, and a 2018 analysis confirmed that there was no evidence of recent positive evolutionary selection of FOXP2 in humans.”

OTOH, lack of the gene certainly seems to have a significant impact of speech development in individuals.

Meanwhile, I had never even heard of it.

So my questions are:

Why don’t we hear more of this gene?

How significant is it?

Dunno. How much knowledge of the thousands of essential human genes do you have?

Bunch of Forkheads.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Meanwhile, I had never even heard of it.

I have heard of this in the context of whether or not Neanderthals had the same power of language as us. Turns out they have the same version of the gene we do.

I used to follow a few channels of YouTube which present lectures on the topic, with much of the work coming from the Max Planck Institute. Worth looking for if you are interested.

Any relationship to the Broca’s region?