Williams syndrome, human self-domestication, and language evolution

Language evolution resulted from changes in our biology, behavior, and culture. One source of these changes might be human self-domestication. Williams syndrome (WS) is a clinical condition with a clearly defined genetic basis which results in a distinctive behavioral and cognitive profile, includin...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Niego, Amy, Benítez Burraco, Antonio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/87962
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/87962
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00521
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Gene expression
Language evolution
Language impairment
Neural crest
Self-domestication
Williams syndrome
Descripción
Sumario:Language evolution resulted from changes in our biology, behavior, and culture. One source of these changes might be human self-domestication. Williams syndrome (WS) is a clinical condition with a clearly defined genetic basis which results in a distinctive behavioral and cognitive profile, including enhanced sociability. In this paper we show evidence that the WS phenotype can be satisfactorily construed as a hyper-domesticated human phenotype, plausibly resulting from the effect of the WS hemideletion on selected candidates for domestication and neural crest (NC) function. Specifically, we show that genes involved in animal domestication and NC development and function are significantly dysregulated in the blood of subjects with WS. We also discuss the consequences of this link between domestication and WS for our current understanding of language evolution.