Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:25:11.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The sound of one hand clapping: Overdetermination and the pansensory nature of communication

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2014

Kenneth John Aitken*
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Hillside School, Aberdour, Fife KY3 0RH, Scotland, United Kingdom. [email protected]@btinternet.com

Abstract

Two substantive issues are relevant to discussions of the evolution of acoustic communication and merit further consideration here. The first is the importance of communicative ontogeny and the impact of the proximal social environment on the early development of communication and language. The second is the emerging evidence for a number of non-linguistic roles of FOXP2 and its orthologs.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitken, K. J. (2008) Intersubjectivity, affective neuroscience, and the neurobiology of autistic spectrum disorders: A systematic review. Keio Journal of Medicine 57(1):1536.Google Scholar
Aitken, K. J. & Trevarthen, C. (1997) Self/other organization in human psychological development. Development and Psychopathology 9(4):653–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ayub, Q., Yngvadottir, B., Chen, Y., Xue, Y., Hu, M., Vernes, S. C., Fisher, S. E. & Tyler-Smith, C. (2013) FOXP2 Targets show evidence of positive selection in European populations. American Journal of Human Genetics 92:696706.Google Scholar
Bowers, J. M. & Konopka, G. (2012) The role of the FOXP family of transcription factors in ASD. Disease Markers 33(2012):251–60. doi: 10.3233/DMA-2012-0919.Google Scholar
Bowers, J. M., Perez-Pouchoulen, M., Edwards, N. S. & McCarthy, M. M. (2013) Foxp2 mediates sex differences in ultrasonic vocalization by rat pups and directs order of maternal retrieval. Journal of Neuroscience 33(8):3276–83.Google Scholar
Carlsson, P. & Mahlapuu, M. (2002) Forkhead transcription factors: Key players in development and metabolism. Developmental Biology 250(1):123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chien, W.-H., Gau, S. S.-F., Chen, C.-H., Tsai, W.-C., Wu, Y.-Y., Chen, P.-H., Shang, C.-Y. & Chen, C.-H. (2013) Increased gene expression of FOXP1 in patients with autism spectrum disorders. Molecular Autism 4:23. Available at: http://www.molecularautism.com/content/4/1/23 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crais, E., Douglas, D. & Campbell, C. (2004) The intersection of the development of gestures and intentionality. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research 47:678–94.Google Scholar
Deriziotis, P. & Fisher, S. E. (2013) Neurogenomics of speech and language disorders: The road ahead. Genome Biology 14:204. Available at: http://genomebiology.com/2013/14/4/204 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Enard, W., Gehre, S., Hammerschmidt, K., Hölter, S. M., Blass, T., Somel, M., Brückner, M. K., Schreiweis, C., Winter, C., Sohr, R., Becker, L., Wiebe, V., Nickel, B., Giger, T., Müller, U., Groszer, M., Adler, T., Aguilar, A., Bolle, I., Calzada-Wack, J., Dalke, C., Ehrhardt, N., Favor, J., Fuchs, H., Gailus-Durner, V., Hans, W., Hölzlwimmer, G., Javaheri, A., Kalaydjiev, S., Kallnik, M., Kling, E., Kunder, S., Mossbrugger, I., Naton, B., Racz, I., Rathkolb, B., Rozman, J., Schrewe, A., Busch, D. H., Graw, J., Ivandic, B., Klingenspor, M., Klopstock, T., Ollert, M., Quintanilla-Martinez, L., Schulz, H., Wolf, E., Wurst, W., Zimmer, A., Fisher, S. E., Morgenstern, R., Arendt, T., de Angelis, M. H., Fischer, J., Schwarz, J. & Pääbo, S. (2009) A humanized version of Foxp2 affects cortico-basal ganglia circuits in mice. Cell 137:961–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feldman, R. (2007) Parent–infant synchrony: Biological foundations and developmental outcomes. Current Directions in Psychological Science 16(6):340–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fletcher, P. (1990) Speech and language defects. Nature 346(6281):226.Google Scholar
Gopnik, M. (1990b) Genetic basis of grammar defect. Nature 347(6288):26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Groszer, M., Keays, D. A., Deacon, R. M. J., de Bono, J. P., Prasad-Mulcare, S., Gaub, S., Baum, M. G., French, C. A., Nicod, J., Coventry, J. A., Enard, W., Fray, M., Brown, S. D. M., Nolan, P. M., Pääbo, S., Channon, K. M., Costa, R. M., Ellers, J., Ehret, G., Rawlins, J. N. P. & Fisher, S. E. (2008) Impaired synaptic plasticity and motor learning in mice carrying a point mutation implicated in human speech deficits. Current Biology 18:354–62.Google Scholar
Hurst, J., Baraitser, M., Auger, E., Graham, F. & Norell, S. (1990) An extended family with a dominantly inherited speech disorder. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 32:347–55.Google Scholar
Kirk, E., Howlett, N., Pine, K. J. & Fletcher, B. (C). (2012) To sign or not to sign? The impact of encouraging infants to gesture on infant language and maternal mind-mindedness. Child Development 84(2):574–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Konopka, G., Bomar, J. M., Winden, K., Coppola, G., Jonsson, Z. O., Gao, F., Peng, S., Preuss, T. M., Wohlschlegel, J. A. & Geschwind, D. H. (2009) Human-specific transcriptional regulation of CNS development genes by FOXP2. Nature 462(7270):213–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lai, C. S. L., Fisher, S. E., Hurst, J. A., Vargha-Khadem, F. & Monaco, A. P. (2001) A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder. Nature 413(6855):519–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G., Wang, J., Rossiter, S. J., Jones, G. & Zhang, S. (2007) Accelerated FoxP2 evolution in echolocating bats. PLoS ONE 2(9):e900. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000900.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liégeois, F., Baldeweg, T., Connelly, A., Gadian, D. G., Mishkin, M. & Vargha-Khadem, F. (2003) Language fMRI abnormalities associated with FOXP2 gene mutation. Nature Neuroscience 6:1230–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lundy, B. L. (2013) Paternal and maternal mind-mindedness and preschoolers' theory of mind: The mediating role of interactional attunement. Social Development 22:5874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, V. J. (2009) Use with caution: Developmental systems divergence and potential pitfalls of animal models. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 82:5366.Google Scholar
Marseglia, G., Scordo, M. R., Pescucci, C., Nannetti, G., Biagini, E., Scandurra, V., Gerundino, F., Magi, A., Benelli, M. & Torricelli, F. (2012) 372 kb Microdeletion in 18q12.3 causing SETBP1 haploinsufficiency associated with mild mental retardation and expressive speech impairment. European Journal of Medical Genetics 55:216–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Metzner, W. & Schuller, G. (2010) Vocal control in echolocating bats. In: Handbook of mammalian vocalization: An integrative neuroscience approach, ed. Brudzynski, S. M., Ch. 9.4, pp. 403–15. Academic Press/Elsevier.Google Scholar
Miller, J. E., Spiteri, E., Condro, M. C., Dosumu-Johnson, R. T., Geschwind, D. H. & White, S. A. (2008) Birdsong decreases protein levels of FoxP2, a molecule required for human speech. Journal of Neurophysiology 100:2015–25.Google Scholar
Miller, P. (2010) The smart swarm. Avery Books.Google Scholar
Mukamel, Z., Konopka, G., Wexler, E., Osborn, G. E., Dong, H., Bergman, M. Y., Levitt, P. & Geschwind, D. H. (2011) Regulation of MET by FOXP2, genes implicated in higher cognitive dysfunction and autism risk. Journal of Neuroscience 31(32):11437–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nery, M. F., González, D. J. & Opazo, J. C. (2013) How to make a dolphin: Molecular signature of positive selection in Cetacean Genome. PLoS ONE 8(6):e65491. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065491.Google Scholar
Newbury, D. F., Fisher, S. E. & Monaco, A. P. (2010) Recent advances in the genetics of language impairment. Genome Medicine 2:6.Google Scholar
Newbury, D. F., Paracchini, S., Scerri, T. S., Winchester, L., Addis, L., Richardson, A. J., Walter, J., Stein, J. F., Talcott, J. B. & Monaco, A. P. (2011) Investigation of dyslexia and SLI risk variants in reading- and language-impaired subjects. Behavioral Genetics 41:90104.Google Scholar
Nudel, R. & Newbury, D. F. (2013) FOXP2 advanced review. WIREs Cognitive Science 4(5):547–60. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oller, D. K., Buder, E. H., Ramsdell, H. L., Chorna, L., Warlaumont, A. S. & Bakeman, R. (2013) Functional flexibility of infant vocalization and the emergence of language. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110(16):6318–23. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1300337110.Google Scholar
Pinel, P., Fauchereau, F., Moreno, A., Barbot, A., Lathrop, M., Zelenika, D., Le Bihan, D., Poline, J.-B., Bourgeron, T. & Dehaene, S. (2012) Genetic variants of FOXP2 and KIAA0319/TTRAP/THEM2 locus are associated with altered brain activation in distinct language-related regions. Journal of Neuroscience 32(3):817–25.Google Scholar
Rowe, M. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2009) Early gesture selectively predicts later language learning. Developmental Science 12(1):182–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scharff, C. & Petri, J. (2011) Evo-devo, deep homology and FoxP2: Implications for the evolution of speech and language. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B 366:2124–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schilbach, L., Timmermans, B., Reddy, V., Costall, A., Bente, G., Schlicht, T. & Vogeley, K. (2013) Toward a second-person neuroscience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36(4):393462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, W. G., Cho, J. Y., Jiang, Y. H., Zhang, M. H., Weisz, D., Elder, G. A., Schmeidler, J., De Gasperi, R., Gama Sosa, M. A., Rabidou, D., Santucci, A. C., Perl, D., Morrisey, E. & Buxbaum, J. D. (2005) Altered ultrasonic vocalization in mice with a disruption in the FoxP2 gene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 102:9643–48.Google Scholar
Spiteri, E., Konopka, G., Coppola, G., Bomar, J., Oldham, M., Ou, J., Vernes, S. C., Fisher, S. E., Ren, B. & Geschwind, D. H. (2007) Identification of the transcriptional targets of FOXP2, a gene linked to speech and language, in developing human brain. American Journal of Human Genetics 8:1144–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szalontai, A. & Csiszar, K. (2013) Genetic insights into the functional elements of language. Human Genetics 132:959–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Teramitsu, I., Kudo, L. C., London, S. E., Geschwind, D. H. & White, S. A. (2004) Parallel FoxP1 and FoxP2 expression in human and songbird brain predicts functional interaction. Journal of Neuroscience 24:3152–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Toma, C., Hervásk, A., Torrico, B., Balmañnak, N., Salgado, M., Maristany, M., Vilella, E., Martínez-Leal, R., Planelles, M. I., Cuscóc, I., del Campo, M., Pérez-Jurado, L. A., Caballero-Andaluz, R., de Diego-Otero, Y., Pérez-Costillas, L., Ramos-Quiroga, J. A., Ribasés, M., Bayés, M. & Cormand, B. (2013) Analysis of two language-related genes in autism: A case–control association study of FOXP2 and CNTNAP2. Psychiatric Genetics 23(2):8285. doi: 10.1097/YPG.0b013e32835d6fc6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trevarthen, C. & Aitken, K. J. (2001) Infant intersubjectivity: Research, theory, and clinical applications. (Annual Research Review.) Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 42(1):348.Google Scholar
Vargha-Khadem, F. & Passingham, R. (1990) Speech and language defects. Nature 346(6281):226.Google Scholar
Volterra, V. & Erting, C. J., eds. (1990) From gesture to language in hearing and deaf children. Springer Series in Language and Communication 27:97106.Google Scholar
Yin, J., Ma, J., Zhang, S. & Metzner, W. (2008) FoxP2 expression in the brain of echolocating and non-echolocating bats and its possible role in vocalization. Paper presented at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, 2008. Program No. 796.13.Google Scholar