Here’s an interesting article about a gene called FoxP2. Mutations in this gene cause severe receptive and expressive language deficits in humans. Now scientists have discovered that songbirds have an extremely similar version of the same gene.
According to lead researcher Erich Jarvis, the FoxP2 gene affects the functioning of numerous other genes so that a past evolutionary change in FoxP2 could have had a major influence on human development.
In the future scientists hope to be able to alter the gene in birds in order to study the possible effects of mutations of the gene on subsequent learning.