Speaking of Genes

The loss or delay of language is one of the most common — and most noticeable — features of autism.Beginning in the 1950s, Noam Chomsky's theory of 'universal grammar' — which says, in essence, that people are born with brain structures equipped for language — revolutionized the linguistics field. But neuroscientists have not yet identified the biological basis of Chomsky's ideas. They know very little, in fact, about how the brains of healthy children acquire language, let alone how the process is disrupted in autism and related disorders.Read more at...SFARI, October 2010.