Humanized Foxp2 accelerates learning by enhancing transitions from declarative to procedural performance
Author(s)
Bornschein, U.; Kerimoglu, C.; Schreiter, S.; Dannemann, M.; Rea, E.; French, Christopher A.; Puliyadi, R.; Groszer, M.; Fisher, S. E.; Mundry, R.; Winter, C.; Hevers, W.; Paabo, S.; Enard, W.; Schreiweis, Christiane; Burguiere, Eric; Goyal, Shubhi; Graybiel, Ann M.; ... Show more Show less
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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[superscript hum]), cortico-basal ganglia circuits are specifically affected. Here we demonstrate marked effects of this humanization of Foxp2 on learning and striatal neuroplasticity. Foxp2[superscript 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[superscript 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.
Date issued
2014-09Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MITJournal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Citation
Schreiweis, C., U. Bornschein, E. Burguiere, C. Kerimoglu, S. Schreiter, M. Dannemann, S. Goyal, et al. “Humanized Foxp2 Accelerates Learning by Enhancing Transitions from Declarative to Procedural Performance.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 39 (September 15, 2014): 14253–14258.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0027-8424
1091-6490