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

Niarchou, Maria; Gustavson, Daniel E.; Sathirapongsasuti, J. Fah; Anglada-Tort, Manuel; Eising, Else; Bell, Eamonn; McArthur, Evonne; Straub, Peter; The 23andMe Research Team; McAuley, J. Devin; Capra, John A.; Ullén, Fredrik; Creanza, Nicole; Mosing, Miriam A.; Hinds, David; Davis, Lea K.; Jacoby, Nori; Gordon, Reyna L.

doi:10.1038/s41562-022-01359-x

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

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Eising, Else
Language and Genetics Department, MPI for Psycholinguistics, Max Planck Society;

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Niarchou, M., Gustavson, D. E., Sathirapongsasuti, J. F., Anglada-Tort, M., Eising, E., Bell, E., et al. (2022). Genome-wide association study of musical beat synchronization demonstrates high polygenicity. Nature Human Behaviour, 6(9), 1292-1309. doi:10.1038/s41562-022-01359-x.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7FBB-7

Abstract

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 × 10−8) 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.