PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Maties Marí
AU  - Pedro Tiago Martins
AU  - Cedric Boeckx
TI  - <em>SRGAP2</em> and the gradual evolution of the modern human language faculty
AID  - 10.1101/143248
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 143248
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/28/143248.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/28/143248.full
AB  - In this paper we argue that vocal learning in Homo preceded the emergence of Anatomically Modern Humans. We build our claim on the evolutionary history of the SLIT-ROBO GTPase 2 gene (SRGAP2). The SLIT-ROBO pathway has been shown to have an important role in the context of vocal learning. Though the influence of particularly SRGAP2 in the emergence of this aspect of language has not gone unnoticed, recent results now allow us to articulate a mechanistic hypothesis of its role in the context of axon guidance. Specifically, SRGAP2C, a duplication of SRGAP2 crucially also found in Neanderthals and Denisovans, but not in extant mammals, inhibits the “original” SRGAP2A, which in turn modulates the axon guidance function of SLIT-ROBO. This, we claim, could have played a role in achieving the critical cortico-laryngeal connection of the vocal learning circuit. Our conclusions support the idea that complex vocal learning could already have been part of the arsenal of some of our extinct ancestors.