{"id":35,"date":"2009-05-30T10:46:45","date_gmt":"2009-05-30T10:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/human-foxp2-gene-affects-mice.html"},"modified":"2014-05-19T09:16:32","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T13:16:32","slug":"human-foxp2-gene-affects-mice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/human-foxp2-gene-affects-mice.html","title":{"rendered":"Human FOXP2 Gene Affects Mice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/mouse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mouse.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/202\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/mouse-thumb-500x263-5412.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"margin: 0pt auto 20px;text-align: center\" width=\"500\" height=\"263\" \/><\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n<div>Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have genetically engineered mice with the human version of FOXP2, a gene connected to the development of language.&nbsp; The result?&nbsp; The new mice developed more complex nerve cells in the basal ganglia, an area of the brain associated with language.&nbsp; The gene also changed the frequency of the squeaks baby mice utter when separated from their mothers.<\/p>\n<p>The FOXP2 gene first gained prominence after researchers identified a mutation of the gene in three generations of a family from England who all had difficulties speaking, understanding complex sentence structures, and moving muscles to articulate sounds.&nbsp; Since this discovery, researchers have found that the same FOXP2 gene has existed in a more or less&nbsp; stable state in all mammals with the exception of humans, where two significant changes in its coding have occurred.&nbsp; The change, which may have occurred as recently as a hundred thousand years ago, suggests that the evolution of the FOXP2 gene may have contributed to human language development.&nbsp; The mouse study seems to add credence to this hypothesis.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Does the fact that mutation and natural selection may explain the emergence of human language question the need of a God to explain our existence then?&nbsp; Not at all, Dr. Collins says in <i>The Language of God<\/i>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>&#8220;Freeing God from the burden of special acts of creation does not remove Him as the source of the things that make humanity special, and of the universe itself.&nbsp; It merely shows us something of how He operates.&#8221;<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"right\">&#8211;<i>The Language of God<\/i>, pages 140-141<\/p>\n<div align=\"left\">To read more about the Max Planck Institute study, see the recent article in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/05\/29\/science\/29mouse.html?_r=2\"><i>The New York Times<\/i><\/a>.&nbsp; The original journal article explaining the study can be found in Volume 137, Issue 5 of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cell.com\/fulltext\/S0092-8674%2809%2900378-X\"><i>Cell<\/i><\/a>.&nbsp; To read more about the FOXP2 gene and other genetic evidence of evolution, be sure to read Dr. Collins&#8217; <a href=\"http:\/\/biologos.org\/projects\/the-language-of-god\/\"><i>The Language of God<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have genetically engineered mice with the human version of FOXP2, a gene connected to the development of language.&nbsp; The result?&nbsp; The new mice developed more complex nerve cells in the basal ganglia, an area of the brain associated with language.&nbsp; The gene also&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-thoughts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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Science and the Sacred","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/human-foxp2-gene-affects-mice.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Human FOXP2 Gene Affects Mice - Science and the Sacred","og_description":"Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have genetically engineered mice with the human version of FOXP2, a gene connected to the development of language.&nbsp; The result?&nbsp; The new mice developed more complex nerve cells in the basal ganglia, an area of the brain associated with language.&nbsp; The gene also&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/human-foxp2-gene-affects-mice.html","og_site_name":"Science and the Sacred","article_published_time":"2009-05-30T10:46:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-19T13:16:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/05\/mouse-thumb-500x263-5412.jpg"}],"author":"The BioLogos Foundation","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/human-foxp2-gene-affects-mice.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/human-foxp2-gene-affects-mice.html","name":"Human FOXP2 Gene Affects Mice - 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