Why is it that some of us can’t live without an iPod perpetually connected to our ears while others couldn’t care less about music?
Our love of listening to tunes may be influenced by whether or not we carry a particular gene.
Researchers have discovered that a gene with the snappy name arginine vasopressin receptor 1A (AVPR1A), is found more frequently in people who relish a good toe-tapper.
Scientists measured the musical abilities of 437 Finnish people aged between 8 and 93 years of age. They asked them how much time they devoted to listening to music in an average week and took a blood test from each participant to see if they carried the AVPR1A gene.
The study incorporated professional musicians, people who like a good tune and people with no interest in music of any description. Participants with the gene were found to spend more time listening to music each week and had higher levels of musical ability.
Studies have also found genetic traits associated with being tone deaf. Other genes have been found to relate to absolute pitch, aka “perfect pitch” (being able to name a certain note just by hearing it).
One study found that you are most likely to possess absolute pitch if you hail from East Asia. However, the nature versus nurture argument also comes into play. People with East Asian ancestry who were born in America are less able to name-that-note than their genes would imply.
The AVPR1A gene is also associated with communication in humans and other species. Many animals, including birds, lizards and fish, communicate with each other using melody and music is a part of all known human cultures
Birds with the gene tend to twitter more than their AVPR1A-less peers which indicates that this genetic trait makes animals more sociable. In addition, lizards and fish with the gene tend to be more, shall we say, amorous with one another. This could also be classified as being more social, depending on how well you like to get to know your friends.
Image: via Wikimedia Commons courtesy of Ofeky and hotblack
Ukkola-Vuoti, L., Oikkonen, J., Onkamo, P., Karma, K., Raijas, P., & Järvelä, I. (2011). Association of the arginine vasopressin receptor 1A (AVPR1A) haplotypes with listening to music Journal of Human Genetics DOI: 10.1038/jhg.2011.13
Deutsch, D., Henthorn, T., Marvin, E., & Xu, H. (2006). Absolute pitch among American and Chinese conservatory students: Prevalence differences, and evidence for a speech-related critical period The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119 (2) DOI: 10.1121/1.2151799
Other Elements articles in which you might be interested:
[...] Powell of Elements reports that music lovers may be genetically inclined to this [...]