Vacancies
Language and Cognition
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How your genome helps you speak
From October 13 to 17, the Society for Neuroscience will have its 42nd annual meeting, this time in New Orleans. More than 30,000 people are expected to attend the world's largest forum for neuroscientists. Simon Fisher, director of MPI's Language and Genetics Department, will give the first Presidential Special Lecture about the human genome and how it helps us speak.
FOXP2
October 12, 2012
Our unmatched capacity for language is one of the most intriguing aspects of being human. Scientists are pinpointing genes that contribute, mainly by studying disorders that involve disturbed development of language. In his presidential lecture, Simon Fisher will present an overview of the state-of-the-art in these gene-mapping efforts. Identifying genes related to language opens up new research avenues, by providing unique windows into key neural pathways and processes.FOXP2: piece of a complex puzzle
Fisher will focus on the gene FOXP2. Over a decade ago, Fisher and his colleagues at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford discovered that FOXP2 mutations cause problems mastering sequences of coordinated mouth movements needed for fluent speech, accompanied by expressive and receptive language impairments. The FOXP2 gene, however, should not be viewed as a mythical 'gene for speech', Fisher says, but instead as one piece of a complex puzzle.
Exciting area of research
