The primary large-scale genomic study of musicality -; published on the quilt of today’s Nature Human Behaviour -; identified 69 genetic variants related to beat synchronization, meaning the flexibility to maneuver in synchrony with the beat of music.

A global team of scientists, including the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute and 23andMe, demonstrated that human capability to maneuver in synchrony with a musical beat (termed beat synchronization) is partially coded within the human genome.

Most of the genes related to beat synchronization are involved in central nervous system function, including genes expressed very early in brain development and in areas underlying auditory and motor skills, in accordance with co-senior writer Reyna Gordon, PhD, associate professor within the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and co-director of the Vanderbilt Music Cognition Lab.

“Rhythm shouldn’t be just influenced by a single gene, it’s influenced by many a whole lot of genes,” Gordon said. “Tapping, clapping and dancing in synchrony with the beat of music is on the core of our human musicality.”

The study also discovered that beat synchronization shares a few of its genetic architecture with other traits, including biological rhythms reminiscent of walking, respiration and circadian patterns.

“That is novel groundwork toward understanding the biology underlying how musicality pertains to other health traits,” said co-senior writer Lea Davis, associate professor of Medicine.”

23andMe’s large research dataset provided study data from greater than 600,000 customers who consented to take part in research allowed researchers to discover genetic alleles that fluctuate in association with participants’ beat synchronization ability.

“The massive variety of consented study participants offered a novel opportunity for our group to capture even small genetic signals,” said David Hinds, PhD, a research fellow and statistical geneticist at 23andMe. “These findings represent a step forward for scientific understanding of the links between genetics and musicality.”

First writer Maria Niarchou, PhD, research assistant professor within the Department of Medicine, said the study findings “made recent connections between the genetic and neural architecture of musical rhythm, thus improving our understanding of how our genomes tune our brains to the beat of the music.”

The work was supported partly by an NIH Director’s Recent Innovator award #DP2HD098859. Visit the FAQ of the study to learn more.

Source:

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Journal reference:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01359-x