Musical aptitude and creativity are prevalent throughout human societies. Do they serve a biological purpose? If so, this purpose is not currently known.
Liisa Ukkola (University of Helsinki, Finland) and coworkers have made progress towards understanding the genetic factors underpinning musical aptitude and creativity. By probing the genetic interactions that work together to impart musical aptitude and creativity, they have begun to unravel how music may be inter-related with other cognitive abilities such as emotion and language.
Families studied.
The scientists studied 19 Finnish families for their investigations, 343 people in total, on average 43 years old. At least some people in each family were professional musicians or active amateurs; in other words, each family had some definite musical aptitude and/or creativity.
Three tests of musical aptitude were conducted, along with a questionnaire regarding musical creativity, with many of these individuals. DNA samples were collected from all test-taking participants.
Testing musical aptitude and creativity.
Results on the three tests of musical aptitude the scientists used in this study have been previously shown to be heritable. One was the Karma Music test, designed to measure numerous features of innate musical ability, while minimizing the possible effects of training and culture.
The other two (Carl Seashore's pitch and time discrimination tests) were designed to measure musical perception, such as pitch and time. Although these three tests cover different components of musical aptitude, there may be some overlap between them.
Musical creativity was tested through a questionnaire. The participants were asked if they had ever composed, improvised, or arranged music, in addition to other questions in order to confirm the answers provided.
The scientists found that the participants' results on the tests of musical aptitude were positively correlated with musical creativity. Participants who reported creativity in music (86% of the participants) were significantly more likely to score well on the tests.
Genetics of musical aptitude and creativity.
The scientists focused their DNA analysis on several gene groups. There is reason to speculate that any of them may be associated with artistic creativity, memory and learning, or various behavioral, emotional, and social traits.
The scientists found that scores on the test of innate musical ability were most strongly positively correlated with arginine vasopressin receptor 1A (AVPR1A) haplotypes.
A haplotype is a group of genetic variants all present on the same stretch of DNA. Interestingly, social cognition and behavior is known to be modulated by this particular haplotype, rendering it a logical genetic candidate for the basis of musical aptitude.
The scientists also found some possible genetic determinants of musical arranging and composing, and pitch recognition and improvising. Although these correlations were not as strong, they are worthy of further investigation.
Overall conclusions.
These scientists have found that musical aptitude, and possibly musical creativity, are correlated with groups of genes known to be involved in a diverse range of cognitive functions necessary for social interactions. It therefore seems likely that possessing a talent for music naturally goes along with possessing a talent for these general mental abilities, thus beginning to illustrate the biological basis of musical aptitude and creativity.
for more information:
Ukkola, L. T., Onkamo, P., Raijas, P., Karma, K., & Järvelä, I. (2009). Musical Aptitude Is Associated with AVPR1A-Haplotypes PLoS ONE, 4 (5) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005534