Willingness to Listen to Music Is Biological, Study of Gene Variants Suggests

Have you ever wondered why some people just love music and others not as much? Well this study shows that there appears to be a genetic link to music and humans.

In the study of University of Helsinki and Sibelius-Academy, Helsinki, they did a study with a range of participants, varying over age, profession, and general knowledge level on music. These families were told to report the number of hours of "active listening" they did, including concerts or singing along and also how many hours they spent listening to music in the background under the category of "passive listening". The participants had their blood taken for DNA analysis.

The correlation between the number of hours of active listening had a strong link to musical aptitude and creativity. Other recent genetic studies show that tone deafness, absolute pitch, musical aptitude, and creativeness all "run in the family". The families with these pedigrees tended to listen to a larger quantity of music actively.

When this was explored on the molecular level, a correlation appeared between listening to music and the arginine vasopressin receptor 1A (AVPR1A) gene variants. This gene has been shown to be associated with musical aptitude as well as forms of social communication and attachment behaviors. These results suggest biological contribution to sound perception and indicate that there is molecular evidence for music's role in social communication.

I find this article interesting because I love to listen to music but I would not say that I have any sort of musical abilities. After reading this article, I know that the presence of AVPR1A is an important aspect of musical aptitude and I must not have that particular gene in my body!