98. Laura Wesseldijk: Behavioural genetics, music, and the importance of twins

Jul 19, 2024

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Laura Wesseldijk works at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt at the Behavioral Genetics unit in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC. We talk about her research on the genetics of music and mental health, methods in behavioural genetics, the role of large samples, the importance of twins for behavioural genetics, and much more.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps
0:00:00: Did Beethoven have bad genetics for music - or are there problems with applying (some) genetic methods to individuals?
0:11:51: Different methods in behavioural genetics
0:24:20: Gene x environment interactions and the difficulty of disentangling them
0:30:30: 23andMe in genetics research
0:37:26: Can you ask an interesting question if you need millions of people to have done a measurement?
0:42:08: How to measure musicality (at scale)
0:47:56: Geneticists really love twins
0:50:41: Do critical periods in music exist?
1:03:30: How Laura got interested in the genetics of music
1:12:07: A book or paper more people should read
1:16:17: Something Laura wishes she'd learnt sooner
1:17:49: Advice for PhD students/postdocs

Podcast links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Laura's links

Website: https://geni.us/wesseldijk-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/wesseldijk-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/wesseldijk-twt

Ben's links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References
Begg, ... & Krause (2023). Genomic analyses of hair from Ludwig van Beethoven. Current Biology.
Harden (2021). The genetic lottery: Why DNA matters for social equality.
Hjelmborg, ... & Kaprio, J. (2017). Lung cancer, genetic predisposition and smoking: the Nordic Twin Study of Cancer. Thorax.
Rutherford (2020). How to argue with a racist: History, science, race and reality.
Rutherford (2022). Control: the dark history and troubling present of eugenics.
Ullén, Mosing, Holm, Eriksson & Madison (2014). Psychometric properties and heritability of a new online test for musicality, the Swedish Musical Discrimination Test. Personality and Individual Differences.
Wesseldijk, Ullén & Mosing (2019). The effects of playing music on mental health outcomes. Scientific reports.
Wesseldijk, Mosing & Ullén (2021). Why is an early start of training related to musical skills in adulthood? A genetically informative study. Psychological Science.
Wesseldijk, Ullén & Mosing (2023). Music and genetics. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.
Wesseldijk, Abdellaoui, Gordon, Ullén & Mosing (2022). Using a polygenic score in a family design to understand genetic influences on musicality. Scientific reports.
Wesseldijk, ... & Fisher (2024). Notes from Beethoven’s genome. Current Biology.