Is music enjoyment anchored in the genes?
A study recently published in the journal Nature Communications shows that music enjoyment is partly hereditary.
To find out whether genetic factors influence music enjoyment or the perception of reward from music, the team used a research design comparing the similarity between identical and fraternal twins: If identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins, genetics probably plays a role.
In collaboration with the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the team was able to use data from more than 9,000 twins, including information on the perception of reward through music and the ability to perceive musical characteristics such as pitch, melody and rhythm.
The results show that the ability to enjoy music is partly inherited: Using the twin design, the team was able to determine that 54 percent of the differences in the Swedish sample were genetic. They also found that the genetic influences on the musical sense of reward are partly independent of musical perception skills and the general (non-musical) sense of reward.
