The famous FOXP2 gene, once called a language gene, is indeed a gene that affects language—when it is mutated, it disrupts articulation—but it performs other roles as well.
The list includes genes. The famous FOXP2 gene, once called a language gene, is indeed a gene that affects language—when it is mutated, it disrupts articulation—but it performs other roles as well. There is no easy way to tease out the different effects. Genes are critical for understanding how language evolved, says Simon Fisher, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, but “we have to think about what genes do.” To put an incredibly complex process very briefly: genes code for proteins, which then affect cells, which may be brain cells that form neural circuits, and it is those circuits that are then responsible for behavior. “It may be that there is a network of genes that are important for syntactic processing or speaking proficiently,” Fisher explains, “but there won't be a single gene that can magically code for a suite of abilities.”