Music and verbal ability – a twin study of ... - VUMC
Transcript of Music and verbal ability – a twin study of ... - VUMC
Musicandverbalability–atwinstudyofgeneticandenvironmentalassociations
LauraW.Wesseldijk1,2,*,ReynaL.Gordon3,4,5,MiriamA.Mosing1,6,FredrikUllén1
1DepartmentofNeuroscience,KarolinskaInstitutet,Solnavägen9,SE-17177Stockholm,Sweden2DepartmentofPsychiatry,AmsterdamUMC,UniversityofAmsterdam,Meibergdreef5,1105AZAmsterdam,TheNetherlands3DepartmentofOtolaryngology-Head&NeckSurgery,VanderbiltUniversityMedicalCenter4DepartmentofPsychology,VanderbiltUniversity5VanderbiltGeneticsInstitute,VanderbiltUniversityMedicalCenter6DepartmentofMedicalEpidemiologyandBiostatistics,KarolinskaInstitutet,Nobelsv12A,17177Stockholm,Sweden*Correspondingauthor:L.W.Wesseldijk,DepartmentofNeuroscience,KarolinskaInstitutet,Solnavägen9,SE-17177Stockholm,SwedenT:+31620251909.E-mail:[email protected].
Theauthorsdeclarenoconflictsofinterestwithrespecttotheauthorshiporthepublicationofthisarticle.
Acknowledgements:ThepresentworkwassupportedbytheBankofSwedenTercentenary
Foundation(M11-0451:1),theSvenandDagmarSalénFoundationandtheMarcusandAmalia
WallenbergFoundation(MAW2018.0017).WeacknowledgeTheSwedishTwinRegistryforaccess
todata.TheSwedishTwinRegistryismanagedbyKarolinskaInstitutetandreceivesfunding
throughtheSwedishResearchCouncilunderthegrantno2017-00641.ReynaL.Gordonwas
supportedbyfundingfromtheNationalInstituteonDeafnessandOtherCommunicationDisorders
andtheOfficeoftheDirectoroftheNationalInstitutesofHealthunderawardnumbers
K18DC017383andR01DC016977.Thecontentissolelytheresponsibilityoftheauthorsanddoes
notnecessarilyrepresenttheofficialviewsoftheNationalInstitutesofHealth.
© 2021, American Psychological Association. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the final, authoritative version of the article. Please do not copy or cite without authors' permission. The final article will be available, upon publication, via its DOI: 10.1037/aca0000401
Abstract
Musicalaptitudeandmusictrainingareassociatedwithlanguage-relatedcognitiveoutcomes,even
whencontrollingforgeneralintelligence.However,geneticandenvironmentalinfluencesonthese
associationshavenotbeenstudied,anditremainsunclearwhethermusictrainingcancausally
increaseverbalability.Inasampleof1,336maletwins,wetestedtheassociationsbetweenverbal
abilitymeasuredattimeofconscriptionatage18andtwomusicrelatedvariables:overallmusical
aptitudeandtotalamountofmusictrainingbeforetheageof18.Weestimatedtheamountof
specificgeneticandenvironmentalinfluencesontheassociationbetweenverbalabilityandmusical
aptitude,overandabovethefactorssharedwithgeneralintelligence,usingclassicaltwinmodelling.
Further,wetestedwhethermusictrainingcouldcausallyinfluenceverbalabilityusingaco-twin-
controlanalysis.Musicalaptitudeandmusictrainingweresignificantlyassociatedwithverbal
ability.Controllingforgeneralintelligenceonlyslightlyattenuatedthecorrelations.Thepartial
associationbetweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalability,correctedforgeneralintelligence,was
mostlyexplainedbysharedgeneticfactors(50%)andnon-sharedenvironmentalinfluences(35%).
Theco-twin-control-analysisgavenosupportforcausaleffectsofearlymusictrainingonverbal
abilityatage18.Overall,ourfindingsinasizeablepopulationsampleconvergewithknown
associationsbetweenthemusicandlanguagedomains,whileresultsfromtwinmodellingsuggested
thatthisreflectedasharedunderlyingaetiologyratherthancausaltransfer.
Introduction
Musictrainingandmusicalaptitudeshowpositiveassociationswithperformanceonabroadrange
ofcognitivetasks(Schellenberg&Weiss,2013).Musictrainingiscorrelated,asonewouldexpect,
with performance on tests of music cognition (Ullén, Mosing, Holm, Eriksson, & Madison, 2014;
Wallentin,Nielsen,Friis-Olivarius,Vuust,&Vuust,2010),butcorrelationshavealsobeenreported
with,forexample,visuospatial(Hetland,2000;Sluming,Brooks,Howard,Downes,&Roberts,2007)
and mathematical abilities (Hobbs, 1985; Vaughn, 2000). Attention has also been given to the
associationbetweenmusicandthelanguagedomain(Besson,Barbaroux,&Dittinger,2017;Kraus&
White-Schwoch, 2017; Patel, 2007; Peretz, Vuvan, Lagrois, & Armony, 2015). Music training is
associatedwithmeasuresofverbalmemory(Chan,Ho,&Cheung,1998;Schellenberg&M.W.Weiss,
2013),vocabulary(Morenoetal.,2011;Piro&Ortiz,2009),auditorycognition(Parbery-Clark,Strait,
Anderson,Hittner,&Kraus,2011)andreadingskills(Butzlaff,2000;Morenoetal.,2009).Similarly
tomusictraining,musicalaptitudeshowssmalltomodestpositiveassociationswithlanguagetasks,
includingphonologicalawareness(Anvari,Trainor,Woodside,&Levy,2002;Forgeardetal.,2008;
Jones,Lucker,Zalewski,Brewer,&Drayna,2009;Politimou,DallaBella,Farrugia,&Franco,2019),
reading(Anvarietal.,2002;Forgeardetal.,2008),pronunciation(Milovanov&Tervaniemi,2011),
speechencoding(Mankel&Bidelman,2018)andspokengrammar(Gordon,Shivers,etal.,2015).
Further, several studies comparing musicians versus non-musicians reported speech processing
abilities (likevowelperceptionorpitchprocessing) tobehigher inmusicians (Bidelman&Alain,
2015;Magne,Schon,&Besson,2006;Marie,Magne,&Besson,2011;Schon,Magne,&Besson,2004).
However, associations betweenmusic and language have rarely been tested in large population
samples.
Itcouldbethatmusicandlanguageshareevolutionaryroots(Brown,Martinez,&Parsons,2006;
Kotz, Ravignani, & Fitch, 2018; Wallin, Merker, & Brown, 2000), which would be reflected in
phenotypicaswellasgeneticcorrelations.Forinstance,ithasbeenproposedthatarudimentaryform
of singing communication pre-dated language (Brown, 2017; Dissanayake, 2005;Mithen,Morley,
Wray, Tallerman, & Gamble, 2006). Other theorists have suggested that genericmechanisms for
processingofhierarchicalstructuresinthebrainmayhaveplayedakeyroleintheevolutionofboth
musicandlanguage(Fitch,2017;Fitch&Martins,2014).Yetatpresent,thehypothesisthatlanguage
andmusicshareageneticbasisislargelyunexplored.
Tosummarize,eventhoughassociationsbetweenmeasuresofmusictrainingormusicalaptitude,
ontheonehand,andlanguagerelatedcognitiveoutcomes,ontheotherhand,arewell-replicated,less
isknownabouttheirunderlyingcauses.Inaddition,interventionstudieshavealsofoundsignificant
effectsofmusictrainingonverbalperformanceandneuralprocessingoflinguisticstimuli,providing
indicationsthatmusicandlanguagecouldbecausallyrelated(Chobert,Francois,Velay,&Besson,
2014;Morenoetal.,2009;Yuetal.,2017).Thisevidencehaslargelybeeninterpretedinfavorofa
causaltransferhypothesisofexpertisefrommusictrainingtolanguageskills(seeOPERAhypothesis
by Patel, 2014). However, the observed associations could also be driven by genetic liability or
environmentalfactors,ratherthancausaleffectsofoneontheother.Forexample,bothmusictraining
andmusicalaptitudearecorrelatedwithgeneralintelligence(Mosing,Madison,Pedersen,&Ullén,
2016; Mosing, Pedersen, Madison, & Ullén, 2014; Mosing, Verweij, Madison, & Ullén, 2016;
Schellenberg&Weiss,2013),whichinturnisrelatedtoperformanceonessentiallyallcognitivetasks
(McGrew, 2009). We have found, using twin modelling, that shared genes underlie associations
between intelligence and musical outcomes (Mosing, Madison, et al., 2016; Mosing et al., 2014;
Mosing,Verweij,etal.,2016)andahighgeneticcorrelationhasbeenfoundbetweenintelligenceand
language abilities (Plomin & Deary, 2015). Nonetheless, an emerging literature shows that
correlationsbetweenlanguagetasksandmusicaltasks,ormusictraining,remainsignificantwhen
generalintelligenceisheldconstant(Barwick,Valentine,West,&Wilding,1989;Corrigall&Trainor,
2011; Gordon, Shivers, et al., 2015; Lamb & Gregory, 1993; Milovanov & Tervaniemi, 2011;
Swaminathan& Schellenberg, 2019). This suggests that associations betweenmusical and verbal
abilities are likely influenced by more specific factors, over and above the effects of general
intelligence.
Inthisstudy,weanalyzedtheassociationsbetweenmusicalvariablesandverbalability,taking
general intelligence into account, utilizing a large sample of Swedish twins. The study had three
specific aims. First, we test whether, in our population-based twin sample, musical aptitude is
correlatedwithverbalability,evenwhencontrollingforgeneralintelligence.Second,withtheuseof
twindata,wewilltesttowhatdegreetheassociationbetweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalabilityis
influenced by specific genetic factors, over and above the genetic factors shared with general
intelligence. Lastly, we will investigate whether a cumulative measure of music training during
childhoodandadolescenceiscorrelatedwithverbalabilitymeasuredinearlyadulthoodandwhether
thisassociationremainssignificantwithinmonozygotictwinpairs,i.e.aco-twin-controlanalysis,to
testwhethertheassociationisinlinewithacausalhypothesis.
Methods
Participants
In2012-2013,32,000adulttwinsregisteredwiththeSwedishTwinRegistry(STR)from‘theStudy
ofTwinAdults:GenesandEnvironment’(STAGE)wereinvitedtoparticipateinastudycollecting,
amongotherthings,dataonmusictraining,musicalaptitudeandgeneralintelligence.The11,543
twinindividualsthatresponded(4,891males)wereagedbetween27and54years(M=40.7,DS=
7.7)attimeofmeasurement.Ofthe4,891maleparticipants,2,288hadcompletedanintelligence
test,includingaverbalabilitymeasurement,atage18basedonmilitaryconscriptionmeasures.Of
these2,288individuals,1,336individuals(480monozygotic[MZ]twins)haddataavailableon
musicalaptitudeand1,472(525MZtwins)onhoursofmusictraining.Thesewereusedfor
phenotypiccorrelationsandco-twin-controlanalysis.Datafromcompletetwinpairscontributeto
thegeneticanalyses,andwereavailableforverbalabilityfor303pairs(185MZand118dizygotic
[DZ]twinpairs),formusicalaptitudefor373pairs(240MZ,133DZtwinpairs),andforgeneral
intelligencefor507pairs(310MZ,197DZtwinpairs).Intotal,for165completemaletwinpairs
(110MZ,55DZtwinpairs)informationwasavailableonallthreemeasures:verbalability,musical
aptitudeandgeneralintelligence.
Informedconsentwasobtainedfromallparticipants.Thestudywasapprovedbythe
RegionalEthicsReviewBoardinStockholm(Dnr2011/570-31/5,2012/1107-32,2018/1592-32).
Allresearchmethodswereperformedinaccordancewithrelevantguidelinesandregulations.
Measures
Musicalaptitude.MusicalaptitudewasmeasuredusingtheSwedishMusicalDiscriminationTest
(SMDT)(Ullénetal.,2014).TheSMDT,administeredonline,consistsofthreesubtests:apitch,
melodyandrhythmdiscriminationtest.Thethreediscriminationscoresencompassdifferenttrials
rangingfrom18to27trials.Cronbach’salphavalueswereintherange.79–.89forallscales;see
Ullénetal.(2014)foramoredetaileddescriptionandpsychometricvalidationoftheSMDT.Here,
themeanofthethreestandardizedsubtestscoreswasusedasanoverallmusicalaptitudescore.
Generalintelligence.PsychometricintelligencewasmeasuredwiththeWienerMatrizenTest(WMT)
(Formann&Piswanger,1979),whichisavisualmatrixtestsimilartoRaven’sstandardprogressive
matrices.WMTscorescorrelatehighlywithRaven’sSPM(r=0.92)andaCronbach’salphaof.79
showsarelativehighreliabilityofthescale(Ullénetal.,2012).The25-minutelongtestconsistsof
24multiplechoiceitemsandcorrectlyanswereditemsarescoredasoneandsummed,while
incorrectormissingitemsarescoredaszero.
Verbalability.TheSwedishmilitaryserviceexaminesmenbeforethebeginningoftheirconscription.
TheSwedishEnlistmentBattery(Carlstedt&Mårdberg,1993;Mårdberg&Carlstedt,1998)includes
acognitiveability(IQ)testthatconsistsoffourdifferentpartsthatmeasurelogical(40items),
spatial(25items),verbal(40items)andtechnicalabilities(52items).Theverbalabilitysubtest
measuredverbalcomprehensionandwasadministeredintwodifferentversions.Onewasaconcept
discriminationtestinwhichparticipantshadtoselectwhichworddoesnotfitwiththeothers
conceptually,outofalistoffivewords;intheotherversion,participantshadtoselectthesynonym
toawordfromfouralternatives.Normedscoresfromthetwoversionswerepooledinthepresent
analyses.Previousstudiesindicatethattheverbalsubscaleloadssubstantiallyonbothasecond-
orderverbal-crystallizedintelligencefactor(Gc)andgeneralintelligence(g)(Carlstedt&Mårdberg,
1993).ACronbach’salphaof.88hasbeenreportedfortheverbalsubscale(Rönnlund,Carlstedt,
Blomstedt,Nilsson,&Weinehall,2013).Instructionsaregivenpriortoeachsubtestandparticipants
areaskedtoproceedasfastaspossible.Resultsofthedifferenttestsperformedaresummedintoa
9-pointscale,1to9.
Musicaltraining.Participantsthateverplayedaninstrumentwereaskedtoindicatedtheyearsthey
playedandthenumberofhoursperweektheypracticedmusic(in10categoriesrangingfrom0,
over6-9,tomorethan40hours)duringfourageintervals(ages0-5,6-11,12-17and18yearsuntil
timeofmeasurement).Fromtheseanswers,ascorereflectingcumulativemusictrainingfromthe
momenttheystartedpracticinguntilage18wascalculated(Mosing,Madison,Pedersen,Kuja-
Halkola,&Ullen,2014).
Allvariablesincludedintheanalyseswerestandardizedwithameanofzeroandastandard
deviationofone.
Statisticalanalyses
Phenotypicassociations
Correlationsbetweenverbalability,musicalaptitude,musictrainingbeforetheageof18,and
generalintelligencewerecalculatedinSTATA.Additionally,wecalculatedpartialcorrelations
controllingforgeneralintelligence.
Geneticandenvironmentalinfluencesontherelationshipbetweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalability
Bivariateclassicaltwinmodelling–aCholeskydecomposition–inOpenMx(Bokeretal.,2011)was
performedtoexplorethegeneticandenvironmentalinfluences,ontheassociationbetweenmusical
aptitudeandverbalability,whilecontrollingforgeneralintelligence.Therefore,inthemodel,we
enteredaresidualscoreformusicalaptitudeandaresidualscoreforverbalability,afterhaving
regressedgeneralintelligenceout.Inthisgeneticstructuralequationmodel,theobserved
phenotypicvariance(basedonthecorrelationsbetweentwin1andtwin2forthestudiedtraits)as
wellasthephenotypiccovariance(basedonthecross-twin-cross-traitcorrelationsbetweenthe
traits)canbepartitionedintoadditivegenetic(A),commonenvironmental(C)andnon-shared
environmental(E)components.Thisispossiblebecauseoftheavailabilityofdatafromtwotypesof
twins:MZtwinswhoshare100%oftheirgeneticmaterialandfamilyenvironment,andDZtwins
whoshare,onaverage,50%oftheirgenesand100%oftheirfamilyenvironment(Verweij,Mosing,
Zietsch,&Medland,2012).WeestimatedtheACEinfluencesontheassociationbetweenmusical
aptitudeandverbalability,controllingforgeneralintelligence.ThesignificanceoftheseACE
influencesontheassociationwastestedusingthelikelihood-ratiotest,bycomparingamodelwith
thegeneticorenvironmentalfactorfreelyestimatedtoamodelwiththegeneticorenvironmental
factorconstrainedtozero.Inthelikelihoodratiotest,thenegativelog-likelihood(-2LL)andthe
degreesoffreedom(df)ofthemoreconstrainedmodelaresubtractedfromthe-2LLanddfofthe
moregeneralmodel.Achisquaretestthenshowswhethertheconstraintsignificantlydeteriorates
thefitofthemodel(p<.01).
Testingpotentialcausalityofeffectsofmusictrainingonverbalability
Co-twincontrolanalysesinMZtwinswereconductedtotestwhethertheassociationbetweenmusic
trainingbeforetheageof18andverbalabilitymeasuredatconscriptionremainedsignificantwhen
controllingforsharedgeneticandsharedenvironmentalfactorsinfluencingbothtraits.SinceMZ
twinssharetheirgeneticmake-upaswellastheircommonfamilyenvironment,associationswithin
suchpairsareintheoryfreefromfamilialconfounding.Incaseofacausalassociation,thetwinwith
moremusictrainingwouldbeexpectedtoalsoscorehigheronverbalabilitythanhisorherco-twin,
whotrainedless.Within-pairlinearregressionanalyseswereconductedusingthextregfe
statementinSTATAtostratifybytwinpair.OnlycompleteMZtwinpairsdiscordantinmusic
trainingandverbalabilitycontributetothewithin-pairanalyses.Theanalyseswereadjustedfor
generalintelligence.
Results
Phenotypicassociations
InTable1,abovethediagonal,weshowthecorrelationsbetweenmusicalaptitude,verbalability,
musictrainingandgeneralintelligence.Belowthediagonal,partialcorrelations,i.e.controlledfor
generalintelligence,aredisplayed.SupplementaryFigure1showstheassociationsbetweenmusical
aptitudeandverbalability(r=.36),musictrainingandverbalability(r=.11)andtheirbestlinear
fitwhenadjustingforgeneralintelligence(.25and.08respectively).Foracompletecorrelation
tableofallmeasuredvariables(musicalaptitudesubscales,othersubtestsoftheconscriptionIQ
test),seeSupplementaryTable1.
Geneticandenvironmentalinfluencesontherelationshipbetweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalability
Twincorrelationsandtheir95%confidenceintervalsareshowninSupplementaryTable2.Forall
traits,MZcorrelationswerehigherthanDZcorrelations,suggestingtheinvolvementofadditive
geneticfactors.TheDZcorrelationswerelargerthanhalfoftheMZcorrelations,alsosuggestinga
roleforthecommonenvironment.
BasedontheCholeskydecomposition,wecalculatedthepercentageoftheassociation
betweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalabilityexplainedbygeneticandenvironmentalinfluences.Of
thephenotypiccorrelationbetweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalability(r=.25;whencontrolling
forgeneralintelligence),50%ofthevariancewasexplainedbygeneticfactors,15%bycommon
environmentalfactorsand35%byuniqueenvironmentalfactors.
Figure1showsthepathestimatesandtheirconfidenceintervalsforthebivariatemodel
includingmusicalaptitudeandverbalabilitycontrolledforgeneralintelligence.Non-significant
pathsaredashedandpathestimatesfortheuniqueenvironmentalinfluencesaredisplayedinlight
grey.Eventhoughgeneticfactorsexplainedthemajorityofthecovariancebetweenmusicalaptitude
andverbalability,significancetestingshowedthatthegeneticpathwayfrommusicalaptitudeto
verbalability,denotingsharedgeneticfactorsindependentofgeneralintelligence,couldbe
constrainedto0withoutsignificantdeteriorationofmodelfit(χ20.83(1),p=.36).Theshared
environmentalpathwaysfrommusicalaptitudetoverbalabilitywasalsonon-significant(χ20.09
(1),p=.76).
Testingpotentialcausalityofeffectsofmusictrainingonverbalability
Within-pairlinearregressionsinidenticaltwinpairs(co-twincontrolanalyses)showedno
significanteffectofmusictrainingonverbalability(β=.05,p=.56),whenadjustingforfamiliar
factors.Whenaddinggeneralintelligencetotheanalysestheresultsdidnotchange(β=.07,p=.42).
Table1.Correlations(n)betweenmusicalaptitude,verbalability,musictrainingbefore18andgeneralintelligence.Rawcorrelationsareshownabovethediagonalandpartialcorrelations,controllingforgeneralintelligence,areshownbelowthediagonal.
**p<.001,*p<.05.
Musicaptitude Verbalability Musictraining Generalintelligence
Musicalaptitude - .36**(N=1,336)
.35**(N=1,742)
.38**(N=2,830)
Verbalability .25**(N=1,334)
- .11**(N=1,305)
.38**(N=1,689)
Musictraining .35**(N=1,740)
.08*(N=1,007)
- .07*(N=2,187)
Figure1.ThebivariateCholeskydecompositionformusicalaptitudeandverbalability,adjustedforgeneralintelligence.A1andA2aretheadditivegeneticfactorswiththeirpathwayestimates;C1,C2,E1 and E2 are the common (C) and unique (E) environmental factors, respectively. Dashed linesindicatenon-significantpaths.Thesampleofcompletemaletwinpairswithdataavailableformusicalaptitude,verbalabilityandgeneralintelligencewasn=165.
Discussion
Here,wetestedthreehypothesesconcerningtheassociationsbetweenmusicalaptitude,music
trainingandverbalabilitiesinalargepopulation-basedsample(N=1,336maleindividualsinthe
SwedishTwinRegistry).Insupportofourfirsthypothesis,wefoundthatmusicalaptitudeand
musictrainingwereassociatedwithverbalability,evenwhencontrollingforgeneralintelligence.
Second,weusedtwinmodellingtotestwhethertheassociationbetweenmusicalaptitudeand
verbalabilitydependsonspecificgeneticfactors,overandaboveinfluencesfromgeneral
intelligence.Thishypothesiswaspartlyconfirmedbythedata:thepartialassociationbetween
musicalaptitudeandverbalabilitywasmostlyexplainedbygeneticinfluences.However,this
findingdidnotreachstatisticalsignificance.Thirdly,wetestedifmusictraininginchildhoodand
adolescencehasacausalinfluenceonverbalabilitymeasuredatage18.Co-twincontrolmodelling
providednosupportforthishypothesis.
Thecorrelationbetweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalabilitywasmoderate(.36)andlargely
remainedwhencontrollingforgeneralintelligence(.25).Theseresultsconvergewithfindingsfrom
avarietyofneuropsychologicalstudiesshowingassociationsbetweenmusicandlanguagerelated
traits,whilecontrollingforintelligence(Barwicketal.,1989;Corrigall&Trainor,2011;Gordon,
Shivers,etal.,2015;Hille,Gust,Bitz,&Kammer,2011;Lamb&Gregory,1993;Milovanov&
Tervaniemi,2011;Swaminathan&Schellenberg,2019).Surprisingly,generalintelligenceonly
slightlyattenuatedthecorrelations,whileweexpectedalargerroleforIQinexplainingcovariance
betweenlanguageabilitiesandmusicalaptitudebasedonthewell-establishedassociationbetween
musicandIQ(Schellenberg&Weiss,2013).
Nevertheless,astheassociationbetweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalabilityremainedsignificant
aftercontrollingforgeneralintelligence,wewereabletoinvestigateitsunderlyinggeneticand
environmentalinfluences.Theassociationbetweenmusicaptitudeandverbalabilitywasmostly
drivenbygeneticfactors;however,thiseffectwasnon-significant.Itisimportanttonotethough
thatthelackofstatisticalsignificanceislikelyduetothesmallsamplesizeofcompletemaletwin
pairswithdataavailableforallthreetraits(N=165twinpairs).Thesizeofthepathestimates
indicatedthatthemostprominentinfluenceonthepartialvariance(correctedforgeneral
intelligence)wasthatofthegeneticfactor.Therefore,itseemsthatformusicalaptitudethereare
specificgeneticinfluences,overandabovethegeneticinfluencessharedwithgeneralintelligence,
thatexplaintheassociationwithverbalability.Thiscouldimplythatindividualswithagenetic
predispositionformusicarealsomorelikelytohaveapredispositionforbetterlanguageskills.
Notably,wealsofoundasignificantnon-sharedenvironmentalcomponentintheassociation,
suggestingthattheremayalsobeoverlappingenvironmentalinfluencesonmusicalandverbal
ability.Tofurtherinvestigatesuchenvironmentalfactors(e.g.,geneticnichepicking)willbean
interestingtopicforfurtherresearch.
Thelasthypothesiswaswhethertherewasapotentiallycausalinfluenceofmusictraining
onverbalability.First,wefoundthatmusicpracticeinchildhoodandadolescenceisslightlybut
significantlyassociatedwithverbalability(r=.11or.08whencontrolledforgeneralintelligence).
Thisfindingalignswithasubstantialbodyofevidenceshowingthatindividualswhopracticemusic
tendtohavebetterabilitiesandsensitivitiesforspeechandlanguage(i.e.,Brod&Opitz,2012;Marie
etal.,2011;Schonetal.,2004).Onepossibilityisthatthiswouldrepresentcausaltransfereffects
frommusictrainingtolanguageskills(seee.g.OPERAhypothesis,Patel,2014).However,the
presentco-twincontrolanalysisshowedthatmusictrainingduringchildhoodandadolescence,
whencontrollingforfamilialconfounding,didnotpredictverbalabilityatageofconscription.This
suggeststhattheassociationbetweenmusicpracticeandverbalabilityislargelydrivenbyfamilial
factors,whichisinlinewithfindingsfromSwaminathanandSchellenberg(2019).Moreover,adding
generalintelligencetotheanalysisdidnotchangetheseresults.Therefore,inearliercorrelational
work(i.e.,Musacchiaetal.,2007;Marieetal.,2011;Bidelman&Alain,2015),associationsbetween
voluntarymusictrainingandverbalabilitiesarelikelytobeinfluencedbyfamilialfactorsmaking
individualsandtheirfamilieswhoseekmusictrainingmorepredisposedtobettermusicand
speech/languageacquisitionskills(Mankel&Bidelman,2018,Schellenberg,2015).
Thisstudyhasseverallimitations.First,ourdataonverbalabilitywerelimitedtomen
enrolledintheSwedishmilitaryservicebeforethebeginningoftheirconscription.Therefore,itis
possiblethatindividualsmayhavepurposefullyunderperformedintheteststoavoidconscription,
whichwouldresultinincreasederrorandassuchinreducedassociationswiththelatercollected
phenotypes.Moreimportantly,thissamplethereforeonlyincludesmales;futureresearchshould
testwhetherourfindingsreplicateforfemales.Second,asmentionedearlier,thesampleof
completemaletwinpairswithdataavailableformusicalaptitude,verbalabilityandgeneral
intelligencewassmall(N=165pairs)–presumablyanimportantexplanationforthenon-significant
pathwaysinourgeneticmodel.Third,thehoursofmusictrainingvariablewasbasedonself-report
dataandthiscouldintroduceabias.Anotherimportantpointisthatwestudiedtheamountofany
kindofvoluntarymusictrainingwhichcanvarylargelydependingone.g.whetheranindividual
singsortheinstrumenttheindividualplays.Possibly,focusedandcontrolledtrainingofspecific
musicaltasksinthecontextofanintervention,asforexampleinthestudybyFrancois,Chobert,
Besson,andSchon(2013),couldhavedifferentandlargereffectsonlanguagetaskperformance.
Lastly,itisimportanttoemphasizethatverbalabilitymeasuredinthisstudyreflectslexicalaccess
andsemanticrelationships,whichisonlyonecomponentofthemuchbroader‘languageconstruct’.
Itwouldbevaluableifinthefuture,otheraspectsoflanguage(forexamplegrammaror
phonologicalawareness)inrelationtomusicalaptitudewouldalsobeexploredingenetically
informativesamples.Thestrengthofthisstudyisthatwehadalargepopulation-basedsamplein
whichwewereabletoinvestigatenotonlythephenotypicassociationbetweenmusicalaptitude,
musictrainingandverbalability,butalsotestwhetherthisassociationcouldbecausal,bytaking
geneticandfamilialconfoundingintoaccount.
Toourknowledge,thepresentstudyisthefirstgeneticallyinformativepopulation-based
studythathasnowdemonstratedthatmusicalaptitudeandmusictrainingareindeedassociated
withverbalabilitiesinapopulation-basedsample,evenwhencontrollingforgeneralintelligence.
Bothgeneticandnon-sharedenvironmentalfactorsareinvolvedinthepartialassociation,corrected
forinfluencesfromgeneralintelligence,betweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalability.Ratherthan
findingacausaleffectofmusictraining,ourfindingssuggestthattheassociationbetweenmusic
trainingandverbalabilityislikelyduetosharedunderlyingaetiology.
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SupplementaryMaterial
SupplementaryTable1.Correlationsbetweenmusictraining,musicalaptitude,melodydiscrimination,pitchdiscrimination,rhythmdiscrimination,verbalability,spatialability,logicalabilityandtechnicalability.Abovethediagonalfullcorrelationsandbelowthediagonalpartialcorrelationswhilecontrollingforgeneralintelligence.
**p<.001,*p<.05.Notethatmelody,pitchandrhythmdiscriminationformpartoftheoverallmusicalaptitudescore.
SupplementaryTable2.Twincorrelationsperzygositygroupformusicalaptitude,verbalability,musictrainingandgeneralintelligence.
Musictraining
Musicalaptitude
Melodydiscrimination
Pitchdiscrimination
Rhythmdiscrimination
Verbalability
Spatialability
Logicalability
Technicalability
Generalintelligence
Musictraining - .35** .27** .33** .18** .11* .07* .09** .08* .07*Musicalaptitude
.35** - .79** .75** .76** .36** .31** .39** .33** .38**
Melodydiscrimination
.27** .78** - .41** .42** .24** .21** .24** .21** .27**
Pitchdiscrimination
.33** .73** .36** - .33** .25** .22** .30** .28** .30**
Rhythmdiscrimination
.17** .73** .37** .26** - .33** .27** .37** .26** .31**
Verbalability .08* .25** .16** .15** .24** - .48** .68** .45** .38**Spatialability .02 .14** .10** .07* .13** .35** - .58** .54** .54**Logicalability .06 .24** .12** .16** .25** .60** .41** - .52** .55**Technicalability
.05 .20** .12** .17** .15** .33** .41** .38** - .45**
Musicalaptitude
Verbalability
Musictraining
Generalintelligence
MZmaletwins .72(.65-.77) .74(.67-.79) .59(.51-.66) .63(.56-.69)DZmaletwins .53(.40-.62) .46(.32-.58) .38(.23-.51) .39(.28-.49)
SupplementaryFigure1.Therelationshipbetweenmusicalaptitudeandverbalability(r=.36),musictrainingandverbalability(r=.11)andtheirbestlinearfitwhenadjustingforgeneralintelligence(r=.25and.08respectively).