Abstract
To obtain aggregate evidence for the molecular basis of musical abilities and the effects of music, we integrated gene-level data from 105 published studies across multiple species including humans, songbirds and several other animals and used a convergent evidence method to prioritize the top candidate genes. Several of the identified top candidate genes like EGR1, FOS, ARC, BDNF and DUSP1 are known to be activity-dependent immediate early genes that respond to sensory and motor stimuli in the brain. Several other top candidate genes like MAPK10, SNCA, ARHGAP24, TET2, UBE2D3, FAM13A and NUDT9 are located on chromosome 4q21-q24, on the candidate genomic region for music abilities in humans. Functional annotation analyses showed the enrichment of genes involved in functions like cognition, learning, memory, neuronal excitation and apoptosis, long-term potentiation and CDK5 signaling pathway. Interestingly, all these biological functions are known to be essential processes underlying learning and memory that are also fundamental for musical abilities including recognition and production of sound. In summary, our study prioritized top candidate genes related to musical traits.
Highlights
To obtain aggregate evidence for the molecular basis of musical abilities and the effects of music, we integrated gene-level data from 105 published studies across multiple species including humans, songbirds and several other animals and used a convergent evidence method to prioritize the top candidate genes
Several other top candidate genes like MAPK10, SNCA, ARHGAP24, TET2, UBE2D3, FAM13A and NUDT9 are located on chromosome 4q21-q24, on the candidate genomic region for music abilities in humans
Several studies ranging from candidate gene level to genome-wide scans have investigated the molecular basis of musical traits in humans
Summary
To obtain aggregate evidence for the molecular basis of musical abilities and the effects of music, we integrated gene-level data from 105 published studies across multiple species including humans, songbirds and several other animals and used a convergent evidence method to prioritize the top candidate genes. Positive selection regions associated with musical aptitude have been shown to contain genes that affect hearing, language development, birdsong and reward mechanism[13] Despite these independent findings, aggregate evidence for the molecular basis of musical traits remains lacking. A shared background of sound perception and production between evolutionarily as distant species as humans and songbirds has been found in our previous studies, where several homologous genes known to affect song learning and singing in songbirds were up-regulated after music perception and performance in humans[11,12] All these evidence suggest a high evolutionary conservation, or convergent evolution, of molecular mechanisms related to sound perception and production. Data from relevant animal models like songbirds might be used as an additional layer of evidence when outlining the contours of the genetic landscape underlying musical traits in humans
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