Abstract
An efficient auditory system contributes to cognitive and psychosocial development. A right ear advantage in hearing thresholds (HTs) has been described in adults and atypical patterns of left/right hearing threshold asymmetry (HTA) have been described for psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on HT have mainly been conducted in elderly participants whose hearing is more likely to be affected by external environmental factors. Here, we investigated HT and HTA in a children population cohort (ALSPAC, n= 6,743). Better hearing was associated with better cognitive performance and higher socioeconomic status. At the group level, HTA suggested a left ear advantage (mean=-0.28 dB) that was mainly driven by females. SNP heritability for HT and HTA was 0.13 and 0.02, respectively (n= 4,989). We found a modest negative genetic correlation between HT and reading ability. GWAS for HT (n= 5,344) did not yield significant hits but polygenic risk scores for higher educational attainment (EA, ß=-1,564.72, p= .008) and schizophrenia (ß=-241.14, p= .004) were associated with lower HT, that is, better hearing. In summary, we report new data supporting associations between hearing measures and cognitive abilities at the behavioral level. Genetic analysis suggests shared biological pathways between cognitive and sensory systems and provides evidence for a positive outcome of genetic risk for schizophrenia.
Highlights
The auditory system involves a series of complex distributed cerebral networks and its impairment affects psychosocial, emotional, and cognitive development (Stevenson et al, 2018)
Gene-based p-values were computed using an F-test in a multiple linear principal components regression while accounting for LD between SNPs
Gene set p-values were computed for 7,343 gene ontology (GO) terms for biological processes obtained from MsigDB v5.2
Summary
The auditory system involves a series of complex distributed cerebral networks and its impairment affects psychosocial, emotional, and cognitive development (Stevenson et al, 2018). Greater contralateral medial olivonuclear suppression in the right compared to the left ear (Khalfa & Collet, 1996) has been suggested as the underlying correlate of a fundamental functional asymmetry between the left and right ear This hearing threshold asymmetry (HTA) has typically been reported as HT left–HT right so that positive values indicate an advantage of the right and negative values indicate an advantage of the left ear. A right ear advantage has been reported in a sample of n = 22 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) while no asymmetry was found in the control group (Khalfa et al, 2001). An investigation of HT in 250 monozygotic (MZ) and 307 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs from 36 to 80 years of age suggests that environmental effects become more significant with age (Karlsson, Harris, & Svartengren, 1997) Despite this age effect, no study has ever investigated genetic factors involved in hearing function in children. Our results suggest that PRS for higher EA and schizophrenia are associated with better hearing
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Schedule a callMore From: American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics
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