Rs9854612

Strongest association with combined capacities for music perception (pitch, duration, sound patterns) found in study of 767 Finnish individuals belonging in 76 families, involved in musical aptitude. Posterior probability of LD 98%.

This region is located a few dozen kilobases upstream of the GATA binding protein 2 GATA2 gene. GATA2 regulates the development of cochlear hair cells and the inferior colliculus (IC), which are important in tonotopic mapping. SNP is surrounded by known regulatory regions, and may itself be in one.

A genome-wide linkage and association study of musical aptitude identifies loci containing genes related to inner ear development and neurocognitive functions