Musical instrument engagement in adolescence predicts verbal ability 4 years later: A twin and adoption study.

Abstract

Individual differences in music traits are heritable and correlated with the development of cognitive and communication skills, but little is known about whether diverse modes of music engagement (e.g., playing instruments vs. singing) reflect similar underlying genetic/environmental influences. Moreover, the biological etiology underlying the relationship between musicality and childhood language development is poorly understood. Here we explored genetic and environmental associations between music engagement and verbal ability in the Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development & cognitive aging (CATSLife). Adolescents (N = 1,684) completed measures of music engagement and intelligence at approximately age 12 and/or multiple tests of verbal ability at age 16. Structural equation models revealed that instrument engagement was highly heritable (a 2 = .78), with moderate heritability of singing (a 2 = .43) and dance engagement (a 2 = .66). Adolescent self-reported instrument engagement (but not singing or dance engagement) was genetically correlated with age 12 verbal intelligence and still was associated with age 16 verbal ability, even when controlling for age 12 full-scale intelligence, providing evidence for a longitudinal relationship between music engagement and language beyond shared general cognitive processes. Together, these novel findings suggest that shared genetic influences in part accounts for phenotypic associations between music engagement and language, but there may also be some (weak) direct benefits of music engagement on later language abilities.

Using Motor Tempi to Understand Rhythm and Grammatical Skills in Developmental Language Disorder and Typical Language Development

“…For instance, results of a recent twin study ( Wesseldijk et al, 2021 ) suggest that associations between music training and verbal skills can be explained by individual differences in music aptitude, that are partly driven by familial effects, suggesting shared genetic predispositions between music training and verbal skills. Another recent family-based study ( Gustavson et al, 2021 ) also suggests a genetic link between music engagement (skills, interest, lessons) and language development, in line with the framework proposed by Nayak et al (2022) . The interplay between genetic and environmental factors in the relationships between DLD status, musical training, and slowest motor tempo should be investigated in the future.…”

The Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE) Framework for Understanding Musicality-Language Links Across the Lifespan

“…Similarly, twin and family-based studies show that musical abilities (e.g., pitch and rhythm sensitivity) have a significant genetic component ( Drayna et al, 2001 ; Seesjärvi et al, 2016 ; Ullén et al, 2014 ), as does musical engagement, including accomplishment and training ( Hambrick & Tucker-Drob, 2014 ), as summarized in Table 2 . Emerging evidence also finds that both musical aptitude and engagement are genetically associated with language-related traits such as verbal ability ( Gustavson et al, 2021 ; Wesseldijk et al, 2021 ).…”

“…One example of the utilization of twin and family studies to examine the associations between musicality and language comes from Gustavson et al (2021) , who find that self-reported musical instrument engagement at age 12 predicts verbal ability at age 16, controlling for IQ, and that this relationship is likely explained by shared genetic influences. Further, Wesseldijk et al (2021) report recent findings in twins that demonstrate that phenotypic associations between musical aptitude and vocabulary skills are partially attributable to shared family influences.…”

“…While the environmental effects of music on cognition have traditionally been explained via models of neuroplasticity (e.g., Bidelman & Alain, 2015 ; Patel, 2014 ), behavioral genetics findings allow us to reimagine what musical environments can tell us. For example, alongside their influence on musical and language abilities, genes also exert influence on music-related environments (e.g., music practice: Mosing et al, 2014 ; music instrument engagement: Gustavson et al, 2021 ).…”

Exploring individual differences in musical rhythm and grammar skills in school-aged children with typically developing language

“…While the present study upholds previous observations that rhythm and grammar performance are indeed correlated, we did not delve into the neural, biological, or genetic mechanisms that are responsible for this association. Recent twin studies, for example, have revealed that shared genetic influences account for much of the association between verbal ability and measures of musical aptitude and music engagement 60 , 61 . Such findings are more consistent with a model in which musical and language traits are influenced by a similar set of genetic (and environmental) factors, rather than causal associations of music on language development.…”