biostudies-literatureWesseldijk LWThe Bank of Sweden Tercentenary FoundationThe National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the Office of the Director of the National Institutes of HealthNICHD NIH HHSNIDCD NIH HHSThe Sven and Dagmar Salén Foundation and the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg FoundationKarolinska Institute14658https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9424203biostudies-literatureUnknown12(1)To further our understanding of the genetics of musicality, we explored associations between a polygenic score for self-reported beat synchronization ability (PGS_rhythm) and objectively measured rhythm discrimination, as well as other validated music skills and music-related traits. Using family data, we were able to further explore potential pathways of direct genetic, indirect genetic (through passive gene-environment correlation) and confounding effects (such as population structure and assortative mating). In 5648 Swedish twins, we found PGS_rhythm to predict not only rhythm discrimination, but also melody and pitch discrimination (betas between 0.11 and 0.16, p < 0.001), as well as other music-related outcomes (p < 0.05). In contrast, PGS_rhythm was not Scientific reportsUsing a polygenic score in a family design to understand genetic influences on musicality.PMC9424203MAW 2018.0017K18 DC017383DP2 HD098859R01DC016977K18DC017383M11-0451:1R01 DC016977DP2HD098859Shringarpure SPoznik GDGandhi PMFreyman WTran VSchumacher MWeldon CHBell RK23andMe Research TeamKukar KFaaborg ALowe MNoblin ESWang WWang XHernandez AWilton PShastri AJFletez-Brant KMcCreight JCWesseldijk LWFuller STBielenberg JKim JSAbdellaoui AGordon RLBullis EO'Connell JAslibekyan SBryc KPetrakovitz APartida GCFontanillas PHeilbron KDas SLin KHMosing MACoker DShelton JFWong CAuton AMoreno MEPetrakovitz AABabalola EMcIntyre MHNandakumar PFilshtein TDhamija DMountain JLJewett EMMicheletti SJElson SLHuang YLane VUllen FTung JYShi JHicks BTchakoute CTfalseUsing a polygenic score in a family design to understand genetic influences on musicality.To further our understanding of the genetics of musicality, we explored associations between a polygenic score for self-reported beat synchronization ability (PGS_rhythm) and objectively measured rhythm discrimination, as well as other validated music skills and music-related traits. Using family data, we were able to further explore potential pathways of direct genetic, indirect genetic (through passive gene-environment correlation) and confounding effects (such as population structure and assortative mating). In 5648 Swedish twins, we found PGS_rhythm to predict not only rhythm discrimination, but also melody and pitch discrimination (betas between 0.11 and 0.16, p < 0.001), as well as other music-related outcomes (p < 0.05). In contrast, PGS_rhythm was not 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Aug2025-04-25T18:07:47.689Z2024-12-04T01:59:02.456ZS-EPMC94242033603863110.1038/s41598-022-18703-w