Williams syndrome, human self-domestication, and language evolution

Language evolution resulted from changes in our biology, behavior, and culture. One source of these changes might be human self-domestication. Williams syndrome (WS) is a clinical condition with a clearly defined genetic basis and resulting in a distinctive behavioral and cognitive profile, including enhanced sociability. In this paper we show evidence that the WS phenotype can be satisfactorily construed as a hyper-domesticated human phenotype, plausibly resulting from the effect of the WS hemydeletion on several candidates for domestication and neural crest function. We also discuss the consequences of this link between domestication and WS for our current understanding of language evolution.