Musical ability is connected to genes

Geneticists prove that ability to play an instrument is linked to parents

Tom Porter, Mon 30 Jun 2008, 4:50 pm UTC

Blood pressure: Also connected with genes

Those clever scientific people are at it again: this time, in what has been touted as the first study of its kind, geneticists have discovered that musical ability is connected to genes.

A team of Finnish and American geneticists (that's people who study genes) gathered together 234 subjects spanning several generations of 15 families. Their musical skill was put to the test including their ability to keep a beat and measure a pitch.

Scientific American reports on the findings: "The chromosomal regions that were found to be connected to music are known to be involved in the migration of neurons during development. And the study also found that the musical DNA overlapped with a region associated with dyslexia.That finding suggests that language and music have a common evolutionary background".

What this really means is that our musical prowess (or lack of) is just another thing we have to thank (or hate) our parents for. Thanks mum.

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User comments (1)

guitarnoize

22 weeks ago.

Excellent, I'm going to remind my kids of this when they say that can't play something. "Of course you can, its in your genes! Get back to practicing!!!"

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