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Specific language impairment is a disorder that occurs in up to 7% of children aged 5 to 6 years. Typical specific language impairment involves both comprehension and production deficits and is associated with deficits in repeating nonsense words. Although no gene has been implicated in most cases of this disorder, mutations in the gene for the forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) transcription factor are associated with a rare autosomal dominant form that affects approximately 2% of all cases.
In this study, the authors focused on a downstream target of FOXP2: the contactin associated protein-like 2 gene (CNTNAP2), which encodes a neurexin expressed in the cerebral cortex and previously linked to autism. The researchers studied the association of the FO…