The faculty of language: what is it,who has it,and how did it evolve?   总被引：5，自引：0，他引：5  

Hauser MD  Chomsky N  Fitch WT 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2002,298(5598):1569-1579

We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB) and in the narrow sense (FLN). FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).  相似文献   

Host immune system gene targeting by a viral miRNA   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Stern-Ginossar N  Elefant N  Zimmermann A  Wolf DG  Saleh N  Biton M  Horwitz E  Prokocimer Z  Prichard M  Hahn G  Goldman-Wohl D  Greenfield C  Yagel S  Hengel H  Altuvia Y  Margalit H  Mandelboim O 《Science (New York, N.Y.)》2007,317(5836):376-381

Virally encoded microRNAs (miRNAs) have recently been discovered in herpesviruses. However, their biological roles are mostly unknown. We developed an algorithm for the prediction of miRNA targets and applied it to human cytomegalovirus miRNAs, resulting in the identification of the major histocompatibility complex class I-related chain B (MICB) gene as a top candidate target of hcmv-miR-UL112. MICB is a stress-induced ligand of the natural killer (NK) cell activating receptor NKG2D and is critical for the NK cell killing of virus-infected cells and tumor cells. We show that hcmv-miR-UL112 specifically down-regulates MICB expression during viral infection, leading to decreased binding of NKG2D and reduced killing by NK cells. Our results reveal a miRNA-based immunoevasion mechanism that appears to be exploited by human cytomegalovirus.  相似文献