Opinion The Third Edit: Mice and the origins of human language

Take two infants, have them brought up in a remote place by a shepherd who’s not allowed to talk in their presence, and see if they start speaking on their own — if so, in what language. Ordered by the Egyptian Pharaoh Psammetichus, this is the earliest known (likely legendary) experiment to try to trace the origins of human language. It’s a question that has always fascinated humankind, and similar stories are told of many rulers, from the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II to Akbar. Now, a scientific study may have found one piece of the puzzle. It involves not the speech of men, but the squeaks of mice.

NOVA1, a gene that produces a protein, is found in most mammals, but modern humans have a unique variant; one different from the version found in our closest relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans. For this experiment, scientists used CRISPR gene editing to replace the NOVA1 variant found in mice with the human version. The result: The mice with the human variant squeaked differently. Baby mice produced different distress calls from their littermates when isolated from their mothers. And, particularly complex chat-up squeaks ensued when adult males saw females in heat.

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This is likely just one of the many building blocks of the figurative Tower of Babel, together with other genes, parts of the brain involved in speech and more. The findings come at a time when genetic studies are expanding the frontiers of the understanding of language itself as well as the history of individual languages. It’s all very exciting — especially if you’re an adult male mouse.