Genetic association analysis of human median voice pitch identifies a common locus for tonal and non-tonal languages.

• Published in: Communications Biology
• Main Authors: Di, Yazheng, Mefford, Joel, Rahmani, Elior, Wang, Jinhan, Ravi, Vijay, Gorla, Aditya, Alwan, Abeer, Zhu, Tingshao, Flint, Jonathan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2024
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06198-2; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38714798; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11076565/

The genetic influence on human vocal pitch in tonal and non-tonal languages remains largely unknown. In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, pitch changes differentiate word meanings, whereas in non-tonal languages, such as Icelandic, pitch is used to convey intonation. We addressed this question by searching for genetic associations with interindividual variation in median pitch in a Chinese major depression case-control cohort and compared our results with a genome-wide association study from Iceland. The same genetic variant, rs11046212-T in an intron of the ABCC9 gene, was one of the most strongly associated loci with median pitch in both samples. Our meta-analysis revealed four genome-wide significant hits, including two novel associations. The discovery of genetic variants influencing vocal pitch across both tonal and non-tonal languages suggests the possibility of a common genetic contribution to the human vocal system shared in two distinct populations with languages that differ in tonality (Icelandic and Mandarin).