Possible functional links among brain- and skull-related genes selected in modern humans

Benítez‐Burraco, Antonio; Boeckx, Cédric

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00794

Cited by 43 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 252 publications

(370 reference statements)

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“…However, the last stages of the process, and the transition from Neanderthal to AMH skull-shape (more globular), might have been driven by language. Some authors argue that globularization may have originated in 'self-domestication' with associated neotenization, affording better neural connectivity, and they highlight wide networks of genes potentially involved in this process [36][37][38][39]. However, the recent reanalysis of 300 ky early AMH skulls from Morocco shows that these skulls do not have a fully globular shape despite their fully modern faces [3 ,40 ].…”

Section: Functional Genetic Differences Between Amh and Neanderthalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neanderthal language revisited: not only us

Dediu

Levinson

2018

Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

113

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Here we re-evaluate our 2013 paper on the antiquity of language (Dediu and Levinson, 2013) in the light of a surge of new information on human evolution in the last half million years. Although new genetic data suggest the existence of some cognitive differences between Neanderthals and modern humans -fully expected after hundreds of thousands of years of partially separate evolution, overall our claims that Neanderthals were fully articulate beings and that language evolution was gradual are further substantiated by the wealth of new genetic, paleontological and archeological evidence briefly reviewed here. IntroductionIn 2013 we published a paper [1] arguing that vocal language has had a long and gradual evolution in the 1.5 my since Homo erectus, and that Neanderthals were articulate humans, not very different from us. We marshaled paleontological, archeological and genetic evidence against the saltationist view that language evolved abruptly within the last 100 ky (e.g. [2]). Since then there has been a flurry of new evidence from paleontology, archeology and ancient DNA that, we argue here, largely supports our views of a much deeper antiquity and gradualism. The human treeOne striking finding is that many human lineages were coexisting just 300 kya (including Homo naledi, Homo floresiensis, Denisovans, Neanderthals and even anatomically modern humans [3 ]), another being the degree of reticulation in the human tree evidenced by genetics. Recent data suggests that at least 50 ky of interactions on a vast geographic scale from the Levant to Siberia and Western Europe gave plenty of scope for interbreeding; Figure 1 shows some of the gene flow across the Neanderthals, Denisovans and ourselves.The ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans left Africa c. 650 kya, and by 450 kya had diverged into these two lineages, and there are indications of early Neanderthal and Denisovan interbreeding [4], and of interbreeding between Denisovans and yet another archaic hominin. The Neanderthals then interbred with anatomically modern humans (AMH) on at least three occasions, likely when AMH first came into the Levant 100-120 kya [5 ,6], and also during AMH's move into glacial Europe (c. 50 kya [7]). For example, a Siberian Neanderthal has AMH genes introgressed c. 110 kya [7], and an early AMH with Neanderthal anatomical features c. 40 kya from Romania [8] had Neanderthal ancestry just 4-6 generations before [9]. Recent data suggests that while Neanderthals and Denisovans clearly form a clade, the mtDNA groups the former with AMH due to their original mtDNA being replaced by an AMH-like lineage probably through interbreeding before c. 270 kya [10]. It is now clear that such interbreeding did leave traces in contemporary modern humans outside Africa at the level of a few percent of the genome, with regional and inter-individual variation probably due to repeated interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans [5 ,11 ,12 ]. Contact between human lineages is also revealed by other lines of evidence including the oral commen...

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Section: Functional Genetic Differences Between Amh and Neanderthalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neanderthal language revisited: not only us

Dediu

Levinson

2018

Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

113

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“…In our previous work we have shown that this abnormal mode of processing language can be specifically drawn back to an abnormal, distinctive oscillatory profile of the brain during language computation [Murphy and Benítez-Burraco, 2016a]. Also, we have discussed how candidates for SZ are overrepresented among the genes believed to be involved in the evolution of our language readiness, that is, our species-specific ability to learn and use languages [Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco, 2014a, b;Benítez-Burraco and Boeckx, 2015;Murphy and Benítez-Burraco, 2016a].…”

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confidence: 99%

Schizophrenia and Human Self-Domestication: An Evolutionary Linguistics Approach

et al. 2017

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Schizophrenia (SZ) is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder that entails social and cognitive deficits, including marked language problems. Its complex multifactorial etiopathogenesis, including genetic and environmental factors, is still widely uncertain. SZ incidence has always been high and quite stable in human populations, across time and regardless of cultural implications, for unclear reasons. It has been hypothesized that SZ pathophysiology may involve the biological components that changed during the recent human evolutionary history, and led to our distinctive mode of cognition, which includes language skills. In this paper we explore this hypothesis, focusing on the self-domestication of the human species. This has been claimed to account for many human-specific distinctive traits, including aspects of our behavior and cognition, and to favor the emergence of complex languages through cultural evolution. The “domestication syndrome” in mammals comprises the constellation of traits exhibited by domesticated strains, seemingly resulting from the hypofunction of the neural crest. It is our intention to show that people with SZ exhibit more marked domesticated traits at the morphological, physiological, and behavioral levels. We also show that genes involved in domestication and neural crest development and function comprise nearly 20% of SZ candidates, most of which exhibit altered expression profiles in the brain of SZ patients, specifically in areas involved in language processing. Based on these observations, we conclude that SZ may represent an abnormal ontogenetic itinerary for the human faculty of language, resulting, at least in part, from changes in genes important for the domestication syndrome and primarily involving the neural crest.

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“…As also noted, we have detailed characterizations of the genetic differences between humans and our closest relatives, namely, Denisovans and Neanderthals (Grossman et al, 2013;Pääbo, 2014;Field et al, 2016). We also have tentative accounts of the genetic and epigenetic changes important for the emergence of our language-readiness (Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco, 2014a, 2014b, Benítez-Burraco and Boeckx, 2015, as well as a preliminary hypothesis about how these changes could have been translated to changes in the sort of cognitive abilities that are needed for acquiring and mastering a language (Murphy and Benítez-Burraco 2018a, b). One recent genetic research has shown that candidate genes for domestication in mammals are overrepresented among the genes under positive selection in modern humans compared to extinct hominins (Theofanopoulou et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Recent selection of candidate genes for mammal domestication in Europeans and language change in Europe: a hypothesis

Benítez‐Burraco

Chekalin

Брускин

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Human evolution resulted from changes in our biology, behavior, and culture. One source of these changes has been hypothesized to be our self-domestication (that is, the development in humans of features commonly found in domesticated strains of mammals, seemingly as a result of selection for reduced aggression). Signals of domestication, notably brain size reduction, have increased in recent times. In this paper we compare whole-genome data between Late Neolithic/Bronze Age individuals and modern Europeans and show that some genes associated with self-domestication and with neural crest development and function in mammals are significantly differently enriched in nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms between these two groups. We discuss how these changes might account for the exacerbation of features linked to self-domestication and more generally, together with other factors like dietary or social changes, for subtle changes in human cognition and behavior, including language.

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Possible functional links among brain- and skull-related genes selected in modern humans

Cited by 43 publications

References 252 publications

Neanderthal language revisited: not only us

Neanderthal language revisited: not only us

Schizophrenia and Human Self-Domestication: An Evolutionary Linguistics Approach

Recent selection of candidate genes for mammal domestication in Europeans and language change in Europe: a hypothesis

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