Moving in synchrony to the beat is a fundamental component of musicality. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study to identify common genetic variants associated with beat synchronization in 606,825 individuals. Beat synchronization exhibited a highly polygenic architecture, with 69 loci reaching genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10⁻⁸) and single-nucleotide-polymorphism-based heritability (on the liability scale) of 13%–16%. Heritability was enriched for genes expressed in brain tissues and for fetal and adult brain-specific gene regulatory elements, underscoring the role of central-nervous-system-expressed genes linked to the genetic basis of the trait. We performed validations of the self-report phenotype (through separate experiments) and of the genome-wide association study (polygenic scores for beat synchronization were associated with patients algorithmically classified as musicians in medical records of a separate biobank). Genetic correlations with breathing function, motor function, processing speed and chronotype suggest shared genetic architecture with beat synchronization and provide avenues for new phenotypic and genetic explorations.

与节拍同步移动是音乐性的基本组成部分。在这里，我们进行了一项全基因组关联研究，以确定 606,825 名个体中与节拍同步相关的常见遗传变异。节拍同步表现出高度多基因结构，其中 69 个位点达到全基因组显着性 ( P < 5 × 10 ^-8 )，基于单核苷酸多态性的遗传力（在责任范围内）为 13%–16%。脑组织中表达的基因以及胎儿和成人大脑特异性基因调控元件的遗传力得到丰富，强调了与性状遗传基础相关的中枢神经系统表达基因的作用。我们对自我报告表型（通过单独的实验）和全基因组关联研究（节拍同步的多基因评分与在单独生物库的医疗记录中通过算法分类为音乐家的患者相关）进行了验证。与呼吸功能、运动功能、处理速度和时间型的遗传相关性表明具有节拍同步的共享遗传结构，并为新的表型和遗传探索提供了途径。