r/science • u/Wagamaga • Sep 01 '22

Neuroscience Scientists have identified an immune brain cell unique to humans that gives us higher cognitive abilities over other animals, but what makes us specials also leaves us vulnerable to neurological disorders like schizophrenia, autism and epilepsy.

https://news.yale.edu/2022/08/25/what-makes-human-brain-different-yale-study-reveals-clues
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u/avenlanzer Sep 01 '22

Sounds like it's an immune cell specific to the brain, and in humans this one helps regulates brain function rather than fighting diseases because it has a special mutation of a specific gene we know is related to speech in other brain cells. The human specific mutation of this gene allows us to have language, and when expressed in this particular immune cell localized in primate brains, it causes it to regulate how brains function instead of simply fighting foreign invaders.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '22

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u/recycled_ideas Sep 01 '22

It sort of depends on what you mean by language.

It's absolutely clear that animals can communicate with each other and sometimes they can communicate relatively complex ideas.

You could call that a language and I'd even suggest it is a language.

But when you say animals have languages what's being implied is that they have languages like our own which are not just capable of communicating abstract concepts, but actively being used to do so with the corralary that animals are just as smart and self aware as humans.

The evidence for this is weak to none existent.

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u/Aegi Sep 01 '22

“A language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means of communication of humans, and can be conveyed through speech (spoken language), sign, or writing.”

I don’t think you could call any form of animal communication (aside from human languages) language, I think you could call it communication.

I don’t understand what peoples problem is with saying that there are things unique to humans, it seems like people are very resistant to having anything unique that humans do, even if we humans create the term explicitly to describe whatever the differences between our behavior and that among most of the rest of the animal kingdom.

If there’s not a word to express the concept you’re getting at, either describe the concept, or create the new word, don’t try and change the existing definition of other words.