Ancient DNA shared with Neanderthals may explain human language

Key Points:

• Researchers at the University of Iowa investigated how Human Ancestor Quickly Evolved Regions (HAQERs), small genetic regulatory elements, influence human language development, finding these regions have a significant impact on language ability despite comprising less than 0.1% of the genome.
• HAQERs act as regulatory "volume knobs" on genes involved in brain development, with connections to the FOXP2 gene, and were present in Neanderthals, suggesting that the biological "hardware" for language existed much earlier than previously thought.
• The study proposes that HAQER evolution plateaued due to balancing selection, where increases in fetal brain and skull size necessary for language development reached limits imposed by childbirth risks, preventing further genetic changes in these regions.
• Ongoing research aims to separate genetic influences on language from environmental factors by studying multi-generational families originally recruited in the 1990s, with the goal of understanding how genetics and upbringing jointly shape language acquisition.
• This research was supported by NIH grants and the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, involving a multidisciplinary team from the University of Iowa and collaborators from other institutions, and published in Science Advances.