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Genetic factors and shared environment contribute equally to objective singing ability
Daniel Yeom1, Yi Ting Tan1,2, Nick Haslam1
1Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
Iscience
|May 31, 2022
Summary
Singing ability is influenced equally by genetics and environment. Early musical experiences, like childhood singing, significantly impact vocal performance, suggesting a strong environmental component to this complex human skill.
Area of Science:
- Human genetics
- Behavioral genetics
- Music cognition
Background:
- Singing ability is a complex human trait with unknown genetic and environmental contributions.
- Limited studies exist using objective measures for singing ability in genetically informative designs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relative genetic and environmental influences on singing ability.
- To explore the impact of early musical exposure on singing performance.
Main Methods:
- Administered a validated online singing tool to 1189 Australian twins across three singing tasks.
- Derived a reproducible phenotypic index for singing ability using five performance measures (pitch and interval accuracy).
Main Results:
- Singing ability showed moderate heritability (h² = 40.7%).
- Shared environmental factors contributed significantly (c² = 37.1%), nearly matching genetic influence.
- Childhood singing and early music exposure predicted singing ability.
Conclusions:
- Singing ability is influenced by both genetic and shared environmental factors.
- Early life musical experiences play a crucial role in developing singing skills.
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