ABSTRACT
The integration of language pathologies, genetics, brain imaging, molecular embryology, and sequential gene expression, by means of DNA/RNA/proteomics, is a remarkable open possibility. When it comes, however, to how this can help people's understanding of cognition, and more specifically linguistic competence, everything gets complicated. This can be illustrated with the very interesting saga of the FOXP2 gene. FOXP2 is one among scores of other transcription factors, in fact acting at different times in developmental sequencing in one of the many complex genetic regulatory networks that govern the development and the functioning of biological organisms. The chapter shows that remarkable genetic and biochemical analyses are being mapped onto quite imperfect knowledge at the brain level, rather arbitrary evolutionary reconstructions, and, alas, a very naive linguistics. It suggests future avenues of inquiry that can more profitably integrate genetics, neurobiology, developmental studies, and linguistics.
