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Updated: Jul 11, 2025

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
The shared genetic architecture and evolution of human language and musical rhythm
Gökberk Alagöz1, Else Eising1, Yasmina Mekki2,3
1Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, 6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Rhythm and language-related traits are phenotypically correlated, but their genetic overlap is largely unknown. Here, we leveraged two large-scale genome-wide association studies performed to shed light on the shared genetics of rhythm (N=606,825) and dyslexia (N=1,138,870). Our results reveal an intricate shared genetic and neurobiological architecture, and lay groundwork for resolving longstanding debates about the potential co-evolution of human language and musical traits.
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