Phenotypic and genetic associations with musicality are robust to genetic confounding via educational attainment¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Adjusting for PGS EA left phenotypic musicality-communication associations essentially unchanged, and GWAS-by-subtraction PGS rhythmicity-EA reproduced the same genetic association patterns. → Lucía de Hoyos 2025

Evidence¶

Lucía de Hoyos 2025¶

Lucía de Hoyos, Ellen Verhoef, Aysu Okbay, Janne R. Vermeulen, Celeste Figaroa, Miriam Lense, Simon E. Fisher, Reyna L. Gordon & Beate St Pourcain. (2025). Preschool musicality is associated with school-age communication abilities through genes related to rhythmicity. npj Science of Learning 10:39. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00329-y

q2 · i? · associational · r3

Phenotypic regressions were re-run with PGS EA added to the covariates; the article reports "little change in the strength of the associations". A parallel GWAS-by-subtraction analysis (PGS rhythmicity-EA) showed "a similar pattern of genetic overlap across the studied measures", suggesting limited confounding through EA.

"We confirmed the robustness of thefindings (Supplementary Table 1), observing little change in the strength of the associations (Supplementary Fig. 2 vs. Fig. 1)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Preschool and school-age musicality measures predict school-age communication and social communication, explaining up to 6% of phenotypic variance, while infant nursery-rhyme measures explain less than 1% — related
• Polygenic scores for adult rhythmicity validate ALSPAC preschool and school-age musicality measures, extending genetic associations with rhythmicity to an earlier developmental window — related
• Genetic variation shared with rhythmicity does not account for the association between preschool musicality and school-age verbal cognition — related
• The association between preschool musicality and school-age speech-related communication is partially accounted for by polygenic scores for rhythmicity — related
• Under phenotypic assortment NTFD models, parental education shows no environmental effect on offspring educational attainment once genetic influences are accounted for
• Polygenic scores for rhythmicity associate with school-age speech-related communication and verbal-cognition outcomes, with two associations passing multiple-testing correction and four at the nominal level