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; Aslibekyan, Stella; Auton, Adam; Bell, Robert K.; Bryc, Katarzyna; Clark, Sarah K.; Elson, Sarah L.; Fletez-Brant, Kipper; Fontanillas, Pierre; Furlotte, Nicholas A.; Gandhi, Pooja M.; Heilbron, Karl; Hicks, Barry; Huber, Karen E.; Jewett, Ethan M.; Jiang, Yunxuan; Kleinman, Aaron; Lin, Keng-Han; Litterman, Nadia K.; McCreight, Jey C.; McIntyre, Matthew H.; McManus, Kimberly F.; Mountain, Joanna L.; Mozaffari, Sahar V.; Nandakumar, Priyanka; Noblin, Elizabeth S.; Northover, Carrie A.M.; O’Connell, Jared; Pitts, Steven J.; Poznik, G. David; Shastri, Anjali J.; Shelton, Janie F.; Shringarpure, Suyash; Tian, Chao; Tung, Joyce Y.; Tunney, Robert J.; Vacic, Vladimir; Wang, Xin; McAuley, J. Devin; Capra, John A.; Ullén, Fredrik; Creanza, Nicole; Mosing, Miriam A.; Hinds, David A.; Davis, Lea K.; Jacoby, Nori; Gordon, Reyna L.

doi:10.1038/s41562-022-01359-x

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; Aslibekyan, Stella; Auton, Adam; Bell, Robert K.; Bryc, Katarzyna; Clark, Sarah K.; Elson, Sarah L.; Fletez-Brant, Kipper; Fontanillas, Pierre; Furlotte, Nicholas A.; Gandhi, Pooja M.; Heilbron, Karl; Hicks, Barry; Huber, Karen E.; Jewett, Ethan M.; Jiang, Yunxuan; Kleinman, Aaron; Lin, Keng-Han; Litterman, Nadia K.; McCreight, Jey C.; McIntyre, Matthew H.; McManus, Kimberly F.; Mountain, Joanna L.; Mozaffari, Sahar V.; Nandakumar, Priyanka; Noblin, Elizabeth S.; Northover, Carrie A.M.; O’Connell, Jared; Pitts, Steven J.; Poznik, G. David; Shastri, Anjali J.; Shelton, Janie F.; Shringarpure, Suyash; Tian, Chao; Tung, Joyce Y.; Tunney, Robert J.; Vacic, Vladimir; Wang, Xin; McAuley, J. Devin; Capra, John A.; Ullén, Fredrik; Creanza, Nicole; Mosing, Miriam A.; Hinds, David A.; Davis, Lea K.; Jacoby, Nori; Gordon, Reyna L.

Authors

Maria Niarchou

Daniel E. Gustavson

J. Fah Sathirapongsasuti

Manuel Anglada-Tort

Else Eising

Dr Eamonn Bell eamonn.bell@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor

Evonne McArthur

Peter Straub

Stella Aslibekyan

Adam Auton

Dr Eamonn Bell eamonn.bell@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor

Katarzyna Bryc

Sarah K. Clark

Sarah L. Elson

Kipper Fletez-Brant

Pierre Fontanillas

Nicholas A. Furlotte

Pooja M. Gandhi

Karl Heilbron

Barry Hicks

Karen E. Huber

Ethan M. Jewett

Yunxuan Jiang

Aaron Kleinman

Keng-Han Lin

Nadia K. Litterman

Jey C. McCreight

Matthew H. McIntyre

Kimberly F. McManus

Joanna L. Mountain

Sahar V. Mozaffari

Priyanka Nandakumar

Elizabeth S. Noblin

Carrie A.M. Northover

Jared O’Connell

Steven J. Pitts

G. David Poznik

Anjali J. Shastri

Janie F. Shelton

Suyash Shringarpure

Chao Tian

Joyce Y. Tung

Robert J. Tunney

Vladimir Vacic

Xin Wang

J. Devin McAuley

John A. Capra

Fredrik Ullén

Nicole Creanza

Miriam A. Mosing

David A. Hinds

Lea K. Davis

Nori Jacoby

Reyna L. Gordon

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.

Citation

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

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Apr 21, 2022
Online Publication Date	Jun 16, 2022
Publication Date	2022-09
Deposit Date	Jun 23, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Feb 8, 2023
Journal	Nature Human Behaviour
Publisher	Nature Research
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	6
Issue	9
Pages	1292-1309
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01359-x
Related Public URLs	https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/836197v3

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