@article {330852,
	title = {The shared genetic architecture and evolution of human language and musical rhythm},
	journal = {Nature Human Behavior},
	year = {2024},
	month = {2024/11/21},
	abstract = {<p>This study aimed to test theoretical predictions over biological underpinnings of previously documented phenotypic correlations between human language-related and musical rhythm traits. Here, after identifying significant genetic correlations between rhythm, dyslexia and various language-related traits, we adapted multivariate methods to capture genetic signals common to genome-wide association studies of rhythm (N\&thinsp;=\&thinsp;606,825) and dyslexia (N\&thinsp;=\&thinsp;1,138,870). The results revealed 16 pleiotropic loci (P\&thinsp;\&lt;\&thinsp;5\&thinsp;\&times;\&thinsp;10\&minus;8) jointly associated with rhythm impairment and dyslexia, and intricate shared genetic and neurobiological architectures. The joint genetic signal was enriched for foetal and adult brain cell-specific regulatory regions, highlighting complex cellular composition in their shared underpinnings. Local genetic correlation with a key white matter tract (the left superior longitudinal fasciculus-I) substantiated hypotheses about auditory\&ndash;motor connectivity as a genetically influenced, evolutionarily relevant neural endophenotype common to rhythm and language processing. Overall, we provide empirical evidence of multiple aspects of shared biology linking language and musical rhythm, contributing novel insight into the evolutionary relationships between human musicality and linguistic communication traits.</p>
},
	isbn = {2397-3374},
	doi = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02051-y},
	url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-02051-y},
	author = {Alag{\"o}z, G{\"o}kberk and Eising, Else and Mekki, Yasmina and Bignardi, Giacomo and Fontanillas, Pierre and Aslibekyan, Stella and Auton, Adam and Babalola, Elizabeth and Bell, Robert K. and Bielenberg, Jessica and Bowes, Jonathan and Bryc, Katarzyna and Chaudhary, Ninad S. and Coker, Daniella and Das, Sayantan and DelloRusso, Emily and Elson, Sarah L. and Eriksson, Nicholas and Filshtein, Teresa and Freyman, Will and Fuller, Zach and German, Chris and Granka, Julie M. and Heilbron, Karl and Hernandez, Alejandro and Hicks, Barry and Hinds, David A. and Jewett, Ethan M. and Jiang, Yunxuan and Kukar, Katelyn and Kwong, Alan and Liang, Yanyu and Lin, Keng-Han and Llamas, Bianca A. and McIntyre, Matthew H. and Micheletti, Steven J. and Moreno, Meghan E. and Nandakumar, Priyanka and Nguyen, Dominique T. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jared and Petrakovitz, Aaron A. and Poznik, G. David and Reynoso, Alexandra and Saini, Shubham and Schumacher, Morgan and Selcer, Leah and Shastri, Anjali J. and Shelton, Janie F. and Shi, Jingchunzi and Shringarpure, Suyash and Su, Qiaojuan Jane and Tat, Susana A. and Tran, Vinh and Tung, Joyce Y. and Wang, Xin and Wang, Wei and Weldon, Catherine H. and Wilton, Peter and Wong, Corinna D. and Nivard, Michel G. and Luciano, Michelle and Cox, Nancy J. and Fisher, Simon E. and Gordon, Reyna L. and 23andMe Research Team}
}
