Ancient regulatory evolution shapes individual language abilities in present-day humans
Lucas G. Casten, Tanner Koomar, Taylor Thomas, Jin‐Young Koh, Dabney Hofammann, Savantha Thenuwara, Allison M. Momany, Marlea O’Brien, Jeffrey Clark Murray, J. Bruce Tomblin, Jacob J. Michaelson
Polygenic score variants in HAQERs (Human Ancestor Quickly Evolved Regions, <0.1% of the genome) predict spoken language but not nonverbal IQ; language associations replicate in SPARK, ABCD and UK Biobank.
Science Advances · Apr 22, 2026Peer-reviewedEvolutionary Biology✦ In-depth digest