Your Love of Music Is Partly in Your Genes

Music is central to human emotion, but the pleasure people get from it varies. New research suggests this ability has a genetic basis.

A team from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Germany, and Sweden’s Karolinska Institute identified genetic factors that influence how much people enjoy music. Those factors only partly overlap with genes linked to general reward sensitivity, Medical Xpress reported.

So why do people enjoy music?

“The answer to this big question may open a window into broader aspects, such as how experiences become pleasurable. We wanted to understand whether genetic differences between people cause variations in the enjoyment they get from music and what these differences can tell us about human musicality in general,” said Giacomo Bignardi, the lead author of the study.

To determine whether genetic factors contribute to musical enjoyment, or “sensitivity to musical reward,” the researchers used the twin method, which compares similarities between identical and fraternal twins.

The team analyzed data from more than 9,000 Swedish twins. The information covered sensitivity to musical reward and general reward sensitivity, as well as the ability to perceive musical characteristics such as pitch and melody.

The results showed that the ability to derive pleasure from music is partly inherited. Using the twin method, the researchers estimated that 54 percent of the variation in music perception in the sample was linked to genetic differences.

The team also found that genetic influence on sensitivity to musical reward only partly overlaps with general reward sensitivity. The researchers found that different genetic pathways affect different aspects of musical enjoyment — emotional response, the desire to play an instrument, or the urge to dance.

“These findings indicate a complex picture in which partially expressed DNA differences contribute to different aspects of musical enjoyment,” Bignardi said.

In future research, the team will focus on identifying which parts of the genome make the greatest contribution to a person’s ability to enjoy music.

The study’s results were published in the journal Nature Communications.