ABSTRACT
Many of those who have not been able to locate a specific neurological area of differentiation for language have turned to genetics in search of a language gene. Such searches are inevitably misguided as nothing as complicated as language can be coded in a single gene. Indeed, it is now generally recognized that even the structure of the brain is far too complex a system to rely for its construction on a genetic program. Although the FOXP2 gene may prevent chimpanzees from articulating language as we do (Enard et al., 2002), it does not control the development of the nervous system in a manner that would specifically inhibit language. The CNS builds itself, including its language or propensity therefore, through interaction with the environment and the pruning of millions of unused 200synapses during the rapid growth experienced during pre- and postnatal development (Schwartz & Begley, 2002).
