Enhanced procedural learning of speech sound categories in a genetic variant of FOXP2.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Chandrasekaran B
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4438127 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Enhanced procedural learning of speech sound categories in a genetic variant of FOXP2.
Chandrasekaran Bharath B Yi Han-Gyol HG Blanco Nathaniel J NJ McGeary John E JE Maddox W Todd WT
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 20150501 20
A mutation of the forkhead box protein P2 (FOXP2) gene is associated with severe deficits in human speech and language acquisition. In rodents, the humanized form of FOXP2 promotes faster switching from declarative to procedural learning strategies when the two learning systems compete. Here, we examined a polymorphism of FOXP2 (rs6980093) in humans (214 adults; 111 females) for associations with non-native speech category learning success. Neurocomputational modeling results showed that individ ...[more]
Similar Datasets
Project description:Purpose: Foxp2 is the first and for now the only gene connected to speech and language in humans. Two aminoacid substitutions took place in this protein during recent human evolution, after our split from the last common ancestor with chimpanzees, and are most likely to have undergone positive selection in human lineage (Enard et al., 2002). Methods: Transgenic mice in which the wild-type (murine) version of Foxp2 was replaced with the one bearing two human-specific amino acid substitutions (i.e. "humanized" Foxp2) - Foxp2hum/hum, have been compared to their wild-type (WT) counterparts in terms of behavior, electrophysiology and striatal gene expression. The latter was analyzed through RNA-sequencing performed on pooled indexed libraries on three flow cells on Illumina GAIIx. The reads were mapped to mouse genome (mm9) by TopHat 1.4.1 and were counted using Bedtools. mRNA profiles were obtained with more than 20 million reads for every sample. Differential gene expression was analyzed with DESeq using multifactor model (Anders and Huber, 2010). Results: Wild-type and Foxp2hum/hum mice did not show any significant differences in expression at individual gene level, neither in dorsomedial nor in dorsolateral striatum. However, when genes were grouped into functional categories and analyzed accordingly, this revealed a significant downregulation of functional categories related to synaptic signalling and plasticity in dorsomedial striatum of Foxp2hum/hum mice. RNA-sequencing was performed on dorsomedial and dorsolateral striatum of wild-type and Foxp2hum/hum mice, on three flow cells Illumina GAIIx. The libraries from each sample were indexed and pooled together.
2014-09-24 | E-GEOD-60659 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Purpose: Foxp2 is the first and for now the only gene connected to speech and language in humans. Two aminoacid substitutions took place in this protein during recent human evolution, after our split from the last common ancestor with chimpanzees, and are most likely to have undergone positive selection in human lineage (Enard et al., 2002). Methods: Transgenic mice in which the wild-type (murine) version of Foxp2 was replaced with the one bearing two human-specific amino acid substitutions (i.e. "humanized" Foxp2) - Foxp2hum/hum, have been compared to their wild-type (WT) counterparts in terms of behavior, electrophysiology and striatal gene expression. The latter was analyzed through RNA-sequencing performed on pooled indexed libraries on three flow cells on Illumina GAIIx. The reads were mapped to mouse genome (mm9) by TopHat 1.4.1 and were counted using Bedtools. mRNA profiles were obtained with more than 20 million reads for every sample. Differential gene expression was analyzed with DESeq using multifactor model (Anders and Huber, 2010). Results: Wild-type and Foxp2hum/hum mice did not show any significant differences in expression at individual gene level, neither in dorsomedial nor in dorsolateral striatum. However, when genes were grouped into functional categories and analyzed accordingly, this revealed a significant downregulation of functional categories related to synaptic signalling and plasticity in dorsomedial striatum of Foxp2hum/hum mice.
2014-09-24 | GSE60659 | GEO
Project description:The acquisition of language and speech is uniquely human, but how genetic changes might have adapted the nervous system to this capacity is not well understood. Two human-specific amino acid substitutions in the transcription factor forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) are outstanding mechanistic candidates, as they could have been positively selected during human evolution and as FOXP2 is the sole gene to date firmly linked to speech and language development. When these two substitutions are introduced into the endogenous Foxp2 gene of mice (Foxp2(hum)), cortico-basal ganglia circuits are specifically affected. Here we demonstrate marked effects of this humanization of Foxp2 on learning and striatal neuroplasticity. Foxp2(hum/hum) mice learn stimulus-response associations faster than their WT littermates in situations in which declarative (i.e., place-based) and procedural (i.e., response-based) forms of learning could compete during transitions toward proceduralization of action sequences. Striatal districts known to be differently related to these two modes of learning are affected differently in the Foxp2(hum/hum) mice, as judged by measures of dopamine levels, gene expression patterns, and synaptic plasticity, including an NMDA receptor-dependent form of long-term depression. These findings raise the possibility that the humanized Foxp2 phenotype reflects a different tuning of corticostriatal systems involved in declarative and procedural learning, a capacity potentially contributing to adapting the human brain for speech and language acquisition.
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