Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Niarchou, Maria
• Gustavson, Daniel E
• Sathirapongsasuti, J Fah
• Anglada-Tort, Manuel
• Eising, Else
• Bell, Eamonn
• McArthur, Evonne
• Straub, Peter
• McAuley, J Devin
• Capra, John A
• Ullén, Fredrik
• Creanza, Nicole
• Mosing, Miriam A
• Hinds, David A
• Davis, Lea K
• Jacoby, Nori
• Gordon, Reyna L

Titel

Genome-wide association study of musical beat synchronization demonstrates high polygenicity

Ist Teil von

• Nature human behaviour, 2022-09, Vol.6 (9), p.1292-1309

Ort / Verlag

England

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Moving in synchrony to the beat is a fundamental component of musicality. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study to identify common genetic variants associated with beat synchronization in 606,825 individuals. Beat synchronization exhibited a highly polygenic architecture, with 69 loci reaching genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10 ) and single-nucleotide-polymorphism-based heritability (on the liability scale) of 13%-16%. Heritability was enriched for genes expressed in brain tissues and for fetal and adult brain-specific gene regulatory elements, underscoring the role of central-nervous-system-expressed genes linked to the genetic basis of the trait. We performed validations of the self-report phenotype (through separate experiments) and of the genome-wide association study (polygenic scores for beat synchronization were associated with patients algorithmically classified as musicians in medical records of a separate biobank). Genetic correlations with breathing function, motor function, processing speed and chronotype suggest shared genetic architecture with beat synchronization and provide avenues for new phenotypic and genetic explorations.