Music-listening regulates human microRNA expression

ABSTRACT

Music-listening and performance have been shown to affect human gene expression. In order to further elucidate the biological basis of the effects of music on the human body, we studied the effects of music-listening on gene regulation by sequencing microRNAs of the listeners (Music Group) and their controls (Control Group) without music exposure. We identified upregulation of six microRNAs (hsa-miR-132-3p, hsa-miR-361-5p, hsa-miR-421, hsa-miR-23a-3p, hsa-miR-23b-3p, hsa-miR-25-3p) and downregulation of two microRNAs (hsa-miR-378a-3p, hsa-miR-16-2-3p) in Music Group with high musical aptitude. Some upregulated microRNAs were reported to be responsive to neuronal activity (miR-132, miR-23a, miR-23b) and modulators of neuronal plasticity, CNS myelination, and cognitive functions like long-term potentiation and memory. miR-132 plays a critical role in regulating TAU protein levels and is important for preventing tau protein aggregation that causes Alzheimer’s disease. miR-132 and DICER, upregulated after music-listening, protect dopaminergic neurons and are important for retaining striatal dopamine levels. Some of the transcriptional regulators (FOS, CREB1, JUN, EGR1, and BDNF) of the upregulated microRNAs were immediate early genes and top candidates associated with musical traits. BDNF and SNCA, co-expressed and upregulated in music-listening and music-performance, are both are activated by GATA2, which is associated with musical aptitude. Several miRNAs were associated with song-learning, singing, and seasonal plasticity networks in songbirds. We did not detect any significant changes in microRNA expressions associated with music education or low musical aptitude. Our data thereby show the importance of inherent musical aptitude for music appreciation and for eliciting the human microRNA response to music-listening.

KEYWORDS:

• Music-listening
• musical aptitude
• music education
• gene regulation
• microRNA
• sequencing

Acknowledgments

We thank the participants for their generous collaboration. We are grateful to Petri Myllynen, Sanna Pyy, Laura Salmela, Sonja Suhonen, Jaana Oikkonen, and Kai Karma for their help in organizing the study. We are grateful to Dr Eija Korpelainen, CSC, Finland for the insightful comments that helped to improve the manuscript.

Author contributions

IJ conceived the idea of the study. IJ, PR, LUV, and PSN designed the study. LUV recruited the participants. AKP and MA performed the laboratory analyses. PSN performed the bioinformatic analyses, interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript. IJ helped in interpreting the data and writing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

The studies were supported by the Academy of Finland. We thank the High-Throughput Genomics Group at the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics for the generation of the sequencing data (grant reference 090532/Z/09/Z and MRC Hub grant G0900747 91070); Biotieteiden ja Ympäristön Tutkimuksen Toimikunta [13771];University of Helsinki.