The immune syntax revisited : opening new windows on language evolution

Abstract

Recent research has added new dimensions to our understanding of classical evolution, according to which evolutionary novelties result from gene mutations inherited from parents to offspring. Language is surely one such novelty. Together with specific changes in our genome and epigenome, we suggest that two other (related) mechanisms may have contributed to the brain rewiring underlying human cognitive evolution and, specifically, the changes in brain connectivity that prompted the emergence of our species-specific linguistic abilities: the horizontal transfer of genetic material by viral and non-viral vectors and the brain/immune system crosstalk (more generally, the dialogue between the microbiota, the immune system, and the brain). [This Document is Protected by copyright and was first published by Frontiers. All rights reserved. it is reproduced with permission.]Preparation of this work was supported by funds from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness grant numbers FFI-2013-43823-P and FF12014-61888-EXPE Alastair Crisp has kindly provided us with the names of the genes transferred in the primate group and Carles Lalueza-Fox with information about AP001468.1 and RP11-47122.3 in Neanderthals and Denisovans. We thank Robert Berwick for his comments on recent advances in evolutionary biology, Cedric Boeckx and Jayanth Banavar for publication advice, and both Jonathan Dinman and three helpful reviewers for their specific comments on the manuscript. All errors are our responsibility.Filologí