Ability to Compose and Arrange Music May Be Genetically Determined

The questionnaire study of musically educated individuals showed that music-related creative activities are more common in young generations in Finland. It may reflect the change in availability of music or music education in the society.

The genetic study analyzed genomic variants that associate with self-reported composing, arranging or other creativity. Data consisting mostly of families included almost 300 musically-educated participants of whom half did arrange and/or compose music. The study did not grade the characteristics and may reveal information on one’s urge to be musically creative. Composing was linked to chromosome 4 region that has previously been linked to musical abilities. The region includes several brain-related genes including the SNCA gene that has been shown to activate after listening or performing music. The genes associating with composing play role in cerebellar LTD pathway that relate to memory and learning. The cerebellum has previously been sown to activate in improvising and working memory for rhythm. Another LTD-related gene GSG1L was linked to arranging.

The study linked chromosome 18 region to musically active individuals who were not active in composing nor arranging. This region includes several brain-related genes like cadherins.

The research introduces a new biological point of view to study creativity and brain functions related to creative activities. The genetic background of musical creativity is supposedly joint effect from numerous genes and their genetic pathways.

Image shows the LTD pathway.
The LTD pathway was found to be overrepresented among genes suggestively associated with composing. This diagram shows the main molecules and their relationships that are involved in the LTD process. The climbing fibre originates from inferior olive and parallel fibres from the cerebellar cortex. There are various parallel fibres in contact with each Purkinje cell. Stimuli from climbing and parallel fibre impact Purkinje cell partially through the same receptors (mGluR and AMPAR). Parallel fibres function also through NO and GRID; the climbing fibre through CRFR1 and IGF1R. The climbing and parallel fibres are here shown side by side, but they may reside on different parts of the Purkinje cell. The pathway influences phosphorylation and internalization of AMPAR in parallel fibre, which in turn affects the synaptic function for future stimuli. The molecules and cascades related to genes that were suggestively associated with composing are lined with red. Credit: Oikkonen et al./PLOS ONE.
About this genetics and music research

The study ‘”Creative activities in music – a genome-wide linkage analysis” was published in PLOS ONE February 24th 2016. The responsible researcher is MSc Jaana Oikkonen from the University of Helsinki. The study belongs to the project where biological background of music is studied using genomic approaches. The expert in music is MuD Tuire Kuusi from the Helsinki University of Arts and the principal investigator is associate professor Irma Järvelä, University of Helsinki.

Funding: Funding was provided by The Academy of Finland.

Source: Jaana Oikkonen – University of Helsinki
Image Credit: Image is credited to Oikkonen et al./PLOS ONE.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Creative Activities in Music – A Genome-Wide Linkage Analysis” by Jaana Oikkonen, Tuire Kuusi, Petri Peltonen, Pirre Raijas, Liisa Ukkola-Vuoti, Kai Karma, Päivi Onkamo, and Irma Järvelä in PLOS ONE. Published online February 24 2016 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0148679


Abstract

Creative Activities in Music – A Genome-Wide Linkage Analysis

Creative activities in music represent a complex cognitive function of the human brain, whose biological basis is largely unknown. In order to elucidate the biological background of creative activities in music we performed genome-wide linkage and linkage disequilibrium (LD) scans in musically experienced individuals characterised for self-reported composing, arranging and non-music related creativity. The participants consisted of 474 individuals from 79 families, and 103 sporadic individuals. We found promising evidence for linkage at 16p12.1-q12.1 for arranging (LOD 2.75, 120 cases), 4q22.1 for composing (LOD 2.15, 103 cases) and Xp11.23 for non-music related creativity (LOD 2.50, 259 cases). Surprisingly, statistically significant evidence for linkage was found for the opposite phenotype of creative activity in music (neither composing nor arranging; NCNA) at 18q21 (LOD 3.09, 149 cases), which contains cadherin genes like CDH7 and CDH19. The locus at 4q22.1 overlaps the previously identified region of musical aptitude, music perception and performance giving further support for this region as a candidate region for broad range of music-related traits. The other regions at 18q21 and 16p12.1-q12.1 are also adjacent to the previously identified loci with musical aptitude. Pathway analysis of the genes suggestively associated with composing suggested an overrepresentation of the cerebellar long-term depression pathway (LTD), which is a cellular model for synaptic plasticity. The LTD also includes cadherins and AMPA receptors, whose component GSG1L was linked to arranging. These results suggest that molecular pathways linked to memory and learning via LTD affect music-related creative behaviour. Musical creativity is a complex phenotype where a common background with musicality and intelligence has been proposed. Here, we implicate genetic regions affecting music-related creative behaviour, which also include genes with neuropsychiatric associations. We also propose a common genetic background for music-related creative behaviour and musical abilities at chromosome 4.

“Creative Activities in Music – A Genome-Wide Linkage Analysis” by Jaana Oikkonen, Tuire Kuusi, Petri Peltonen, Pirre Raijas, Liisa Ukkola-Vuoti, Kai Karma, Päivi Onkamo, and Irma Järvelä in PLOS ONE. Published online February 24 2016 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0148679

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