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.

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., McArthur, E., Straub, P., Aslibekyan, S., Auton, A., Bell, R. K., Bryc, K., Clark, S. K., Elson, S. L., Fletez-Brant, K., Fontanillas, P., Furlotte, N. A., Gandhi, P. M., Heilbron, K., Hicks, B., …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
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1201048
• Related Public URLs: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/836197v3