Could gene therapy lead to talking animals?
It’s my understanding that monkeys are without a specific "speech" gene that humans share. Could these genes be cloned into cats and dogs and other animals and allow them to speak in human languages? And if so, why hasn’t anyone done it yet?
2 Responses
Mr Zoo
05 Feb 2010
Purple Moogle
05 Feb 2010
No, there are no specific speech genes. Our ability to understand language and communicate verbally is a learned behaviour, not an inherent one.
The only real genetic trait, besides the ones specific to development of the brain, is our inherent tendancy to mimic the behaviour of others. If that were identifiable and transferable without damaging other genetic pathways, it might be possible to produce talking animals. It is, however, extremely unlikely.
No. Absolutely not.
The areas of the brain that enable humans to understand and create language (sometimes collectively called the ‘language organ’ by linguists) is extremely complicated and very poorly understood. It is not a simple matter of one or two genes, it is dependent on the structure of the entire brain, which itself has been formed through millions of years of evolution.
Moreover the capacity to talk (i.e form words with our breath) is dependent on unique human anatomy. Most other animals do not have this capacity.