Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Music Performance Effect On Transcriptome



Music performance involves a lot of cognitive and motor skills which have an unknown biological basis. Neuroscientific studies have showed that the brains of professional musicians differed structurally and functionally from non-musicians. In this study the effect of music performance on the genome-wide peripheral blood transcriptome of professional musicians was analyzed both after a two hour concert and a music free control session.

After the two hour concert up-regulated genes affected dopaminergic neurotransmission, motor behavior, neuronal plasticity, and neurocognative functions including memory and learning. Certain candidate genes like SNCA, FOS and DUSP1 which are involved in song perception and production in songbirds were identified suggesting an evolutionary conservation in biological processes related to sound perception and production. Also, genes were modulated that related to calcium ion homeostasis, iron ion homeostasis, glutathione metabolism, and several neuropsychiatric and neurodegernative diseases that implied that music performance may affect the biological pathways that are essential for the proper maintenance of neuronal function and survival. This was the first study to show evidence for candidate genes and molecular mechanisms underlying music performance. "The findings provide a valuable background for molecular studies of music perception and evolution, and music therapy", says the leader of the study, Dr. Irma Järvelä from the University of Helsinki.

I found this article very interesting due to association between music performance and the up-regulated genes that affected neurocognative and motor functions. In particular this interested me since I play the cello for musical concerts on an almost regular basis but never knew that this ability might be due to evolutionary genes like SNCA, FOS and DUSP1 for sound perception and production in song birds. Furthermore, I learned about the process of transcriptome analysis in the blood and how it can be used to determine when and where a gene is turned on or off in an organism.


Original Article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/291666.php
Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25806429

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