By combining human and chimp Foxp2 genes in a petri dish, University of California, Los Angeles neuroscientists have identified 116 genes controlled by Foxp2 that responded differently to the human version of Foxp2 than the chimp version, supporting Foxp2’s suggested role in the evolution of language and speech.

In another experiment, they found a striking overlap between the genes whose activity was different in the human brain tissue and the set of genes that are controlled differently by human Foxp2, suggesting that a significant part of the difference between human and chimpanzee brains could be explained by two small changes in one gene.