Biology subjects

Bignardi, G.

Publications and source records attributed to Bignardi, G..

9 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Factors underlying creativity show distinct genetic architecture and genetic correlations with psychiatric disorders

While creativity is widely recognized as multifaceted, genome-wide association studies have largely focused on individual measures. Here, we used genomic structural equation modeling of six creativity-related GWASs and identified two latent genetic factors: a general factor and an artistic factor, with 22 and 13 genome-wide significant loci, respectively, nine of which are novel. The general factor was almost perfectly genetically correlated with educational attainment (rg = 0.96), suggesting that it primarily captured genetic influences shared with cognitive and educational processes rather than creativity-specific variation. In contrast, the artistic factor showed only a weak genetic correlation with educational attainment (rg = 0.11) and consistent positive genetic correlations with psychiatric disorders, whereas associations for the general factor were largely null or negative. Biological annotation analyses further identified distinct enrichment patterns unique to the artistic factor, providing initial evidence that different dimensions of creativity may be characterized by partially distinct neurobiological pathways.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2025

Genetic underpinnings of chills from art and music

Art can evoke strong emotional responses in humans. Here, we examine genetic contributions to chills, a marker of such responses. We gather self-reports from a genotyped sample of thousands of partly related individuals from the Netherlands (N =15,606). Using genomic relationships based on common single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, we find that up to 29% of the variation in proneness to aesthetic (visual art and poetry) and music chills can be explained by familial relatedness effects, one-fourth of which is attributed to SNP variation. Furthermore, we reveal a moderate genetic correlation of .58 between aesthetic and music chills, pointing to shared genetic variation affecting susceptibility to strong emotional responses across different art forms. Finally, we find that a polygenic index (PGI) capturing openness to experiences, including propensities towards art (N = 234,880), is associated with susceptibilities both to aesthetic and music chills. Our results show that additive genetic variation, but also familial relatedness beyond shared common SNPs, contributes to proneness to chills from artistic, poetic, and musical expressions. These results open up a promising path towards studying the human attitude towards art, via both state-of-the-art genomics and intergenerational models of transmission. Author SummaryMany people experience chills when listening to music, reading poetry, or viewing art. Yet not everyone feels these reactions in the same way. These differences provide a window into how our brains and bodies respond to art, revealing individual variation in emotional experiences. To investigate what drives these differences, we analysed data from over 15,000 participants with available genetic information, examining whether DNA variation could help explain why some people are more prone to these intense responses. We estimated that roughly 30% of the variation in chills is linked to family-related factors, of which about one fourth was attributable to common DNA variants. Some genetic influences appear to be shared across music, poetry, and art, and are associated with individual openness to experience and general artistic interests, while others may be unique to each domain. These results suggest that genetics contributes to how strongly people respond to cultural experiences and pave the way for future studies on the genetics of sensitivity to art and music experiences.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2024

Distinct genetic pathways to music enjoyment

Humans engage with music for various reasons that range from emotional regulation and relaxation to social bonding. While there are large inter-individual differences in how much humans enjoy music, little is known about the origins of those differences. Here, we disentangled the genetic factors underlying such variation. We collected behavioural data on several facets of music reward sensitivity, music perceptual ability, and general reward sensitivity from a large sample of Swedish twins (N = 9,169). We found that genetic factors substantially explain variance in music reward sensitivity above and beyond genetic influences shared with music perception and general reward sensitivity. Furthermore, multivariate analyses showed that genetic influences on the different facets of music reward sensitivity are partly distinct, uncovering distinct pathways to music enjoyment and different patterns of genetic associations with objectively assessed music perceptual abilities. These results paint a complex picture in which partially distinct sources of genetic variation contribute to different aspects of musical enjoyment and open up new possibilities for using inter-individual differences to gain insights into the biology of a key aspect of human behaviour.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2023

Sex differences in intrinsic functional cortical organization reflect differences in network topology rather than cortical morphometry

Brain size robustly differs between sexes. However, the consequences of this anatomical dimorphism on sex differences in intrinsic brain function remain unclear. We investigated the extent to which sex differences in intrinsic cortical functional organization may be explained by differences in cortical morphometry, namely brain size, microstructure, and the geodesic distances of connectivity profiles. For this, we computed a low dimensional representation of functional cortical organization, the sensory-association axis, and identified widespread sex differences. Contrary to our expectations, observed sex differences in functional organization were not fundamentally associated with differences in brain size, microstructural organization, or geodesic distances, despite these morphometric properties being per se associated with functional organization and differing between sexes. Instead, functional sex differences in the sensory-association axis were associated with differences in functional connectivity profiles and network topology. Collectively, our findings suggest that sex differences in functional cortical organization extend beyond sex differences in cortical morphometry. TeaserInvestigating sex differences in functional cortical organization and their association to differences in cortical morphometry.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

The shared genetic architecture and evolution of human language and musical rhythm

Rhythm and language-related traits are phenotypically correlated, but their genetic overlap is largely unknown. Here, we leveraged two large-scale genome-wide association studies performed to shed light on the shared genetics of rhythm (N=606,825) and dyslexia (N=1,138,870). Our results reveal an intricate shared genetic and neurobiological architecture, and lay groundwork for resolving longstanding debates about the potential co-evolution of human language and musical traits.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2023

Pervasive inter-individual differences in the sensorimotor-association axis of cortical organization

In humans, many neurobiological features of the cortex--including gene expression patterns, microstructure, and functional connectivity--vary systematically along a sensorimotor-association (S-A) axis of brain organisation. To date, it is still poorly understood whether inter-individual differences in patterns of S-A axis capture these robust spatial relationships across neurobiological properties observed at the group-level. Here, we examine inter-individual differences in structural and functional properties of the S-A axis, namely cortical microstructure, geodesic distances, and the functional gradient, in a sample of young adults from the Human Connectome Project (N = 992, including 328 twins). We quantified heritable variation associated with inter-individual differences in the S-A axis, and assessed whether structural and functional properties that are highly spatially correlated at the group-level also share genetic underpinnings. To consider measurement errors in resting-state functional connectivity data and their impact on properties of the S-A axis, we used a multivariate twin design capable of disentangling individual-level variation in both intra- and inter-individual differences. After accounting for some of the intra-individual variation, we found average heritable individual differences in both the functional gradient (htwin2 = 57%), cortical microstructure (htwin2 = 43%), and geodesic distances (htwin2 = 34%). However, these genetic influences were mostly distinct and deviated from group-level patterns. In particular, we found no significant genetic correlation between the functional gradient and microstructure, while we found both positive and negative genetic associations between the functional gradient and geodesic distances. Our approach highlights the complexity of genetic contributions to brain organisation and may have potential implications for understanding cognitive variability within the S-A axis framework.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Socio-economic disadvantage is associated with alterations in brain wiring economy

The quality of a childs social and physical environment is a key influence on brain development, educational attainment and mental wellbeing. However, there still remains a mechanistic gap in our understanding of how environmental influences converge on changes in the brains developmental trajectory. In a sample of 145 children with structural diffusion tensor imaging data, we used generative network modelling to simulate the emergence of whole brain network organisation. We then applied data-driven clustering to stratify the sample according to socio-economic disadvantage, with one of the resulting clusters containing mostly children living below the poverty line. A formal comparison of the simulated networks from the generative model revealed that the computational principles governing network formation were subtly different for children experiencing socio-economic disadvantage, and that this resulted in significantly altered developmental timing of network modularity emergence. Children in the low socio-economic status (SES) group had a significantly slower time to peak modularity, relative to the higher SES group (t(69) = 3.02, P = 3.50 x 10-4, d = 0.491). In a subsequent simulation we showed that the alteration in generative properties increases the variability in wiring probabilities during network formation (KS test: D = 0.012, P < 0.001). One possibility is that multiple environmental influences such as stress, diet and environmental stimulation impact both the systematic coordination of neuronal activity and biological resource constraints, converging on a shift in the economic conditions under which networks form. Alternatively, it is possible that this stochasticity reflects an adaptive mechanism that creates "resilient" networks better suited to unpredictable environments. Author SummaryWe used generative network models to simulate macroscopic brain network development in a sample of 145 children. Within these models, network connections form probabilistically depending on the estimated "cost" of forming a connection, versus topological "value" that the connection would confer. Tracking the formation of the network across the simulation, we could establish the changes in global brain organisation measures such as integration and segregation. Simulations for children experiencing socio-economic disadvantage were associated with a shift in emergence of a topologically valuable network property, namely modularity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Testing for implicit emotion regulation in childhood

Although implicit emotion regulation is thought to be critical for psychosocial development and mental wellbeing, few studies have investigated the neural underpinnings of this form of emotion regulation in children. We used a modified emotional Go/NoGo block design fMRI task to explore the neural correlates of implicit emotion regulation and individual differences in a sample of 40 children (50% female, mean age = 8.65 {+/-} 0.77). Conditions included happy, sad, neutral, and scrambled faces as implicit distractors within the actual Go/NoGo targets. We used a relatively standard preprocessing pipeline via fMRIprep, with T-contrasts for response inhibition and emotional effects, and a nonparametric multiple comparisons procedure, with SnPM, for our group-level analysis. There were multiple significant response inhibition effects, including larger NoGo vs Go activation in the IFG, insula, and MCC/ACC. Valence effects showed significantly greater right putamen activity for the Sad NoGo vs Go contrast and greater bilateral putamen and right pallidum activity for the Happy Go vs Sad Go contrast. These results provide preliminary findings of neural substrates, particularly the putamen, that may be associated with implicit emotion regulation in children.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

On the Etiology of Aesthetic Chills: a Behavioral Genetic Study

Aesthetic chills, broadly defined as a somatic marker of peak emotional-hedonic responses, are experienced by individuals across a variety of human cultures. Yet individuals vary widely in the propensity of feeling them. These individual differences have been studied in relation to demographics, personality, and neurobiological and physiological factors, but no study to date has explored the genetic etiological sources of variation. To partition genetic and environmental sources of variation in the propensity of feeling aesthetic chills, we fitted a biometrical genetic model to data from 14127 twins (from 8995 pairs), collected by the Netherlands Twin Register. Both genetic and unique environmental factors accounted for variance in aesthetic chills, with heritability estimated at .36 ([.33, .39] 95% CI). We found females more prone than males to report feeling aesthetic chills. However, a test for genotype x sex interaction did not show evidence that heritability differs between sexes. We thus show that the propensity of feeling aesthetic chills is not shaped by nurture alone, but it also reflects underlying genetic propensities.

genetics↗