ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2021
Linking the genomic signatures of human beat synchronization and learned song in birds.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Musical rhythm abilities and risk for developmental speech-language problems and disorders: epidemiological and polygenic associations.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- Genome-wide investigation of prosody perception: Shared genetic influences between speech rhythm, musical rhythm, and reading traits.HGG advances · 2026Article
- Ancient regulatory evolution shapes individual language abilities in present-day humans.Science advances · 2026Article
- Ancient regulatory evolution shapes individual language abilities in present-day humans.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The shared genetic architecture and evolution of human language and musical rhythm.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- An affordable solution for investigating zebra finch intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) signals.PloS one · 2025Article
- A genomic basis of vocal rhythm in birds.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Universality, domain-specificity, and development of psychological responses to music.Nature reviews psychology · 2023Article
- Analogies of human speech and bird song: From vocal learning behavior to its neural basis.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
- The Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE) Framework for Understanding Musicality-Language Links Across the Lifespan.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2022Review
- Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Vocal learning as a preadaptation for the evolution of human beat perception and synchronization.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The development of rhythmicity is foundational to communicative and social behaviours in humans and many other species, and mechanisms of synchrony could be conserved across species. The goal of the current paper is to explore evolutionary hypotheses linking vocal learning and beat synchronization through genomic approaches, testing the prediction that genetic underpinnings of birdsong also contribute to the aetiology of human interactions with musical beat structure. We combined state-of-the-art-genomic datasets that account for underlying polygenicity of these traits: birdsong genome-wide transcriptomics linked to singing in zebra finches, and a human genome-wide association study of beat synchronization. Results of competitive gene set analysis revealed that the genetic architecture of human beat synchronization is significantly enriched for birdsong genes expressed in songbird Area X (a key nucleus for vocal learning, and homologous to human basal ganglia). These findings complement ethological and neural evidence of the relationship between vocal learning and beat synchronization, supporting a framework of some degree of common genomic substrates underlying rhythm-related behaviours in two clades, humans and songbirds (the largest evolutionary radiation of vocal learners). Future cross-species approaches investigating the genetic underpinnings of beat synchronization in a broad evolutionary context are discussed. This article is part of the theme issue 'Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology'.
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