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Segal H. Commentary: Assortative parenting and assortative cross-parenting: New views of parental preference for selected children. Early Hum Dev 2024; 193:106034. [PMID: 38749092 DOI: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2024.106034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2024] [Accepted: 05/02/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
The commentary delves into the implications of "assortative parenting" and "assortative cross-parenting," as introduced by N. L. Segal, and situates these concepts within the framework of current research. It addresses the joys and complexities of raising twins, highlighting how their concurrent development stages can amplify parental favoritism and heighten the challenge of addressing each twin's unique needs. This interplay provides a rich context to investigate assortative parenting practices. Additionally, this paper contemplates the broader picture of twin studies, particularly how the care of monozygotic twins (who share 100 % of their genes) and dizygotic twins (who share 50 % of their genes, on average) may reveal the intertwined nature of genetics and environment in parenting strategies. It also proposes that twins' interactions with other family members, their spouses, and peers can offer profound insights into the phenomena of phenotypic assortative affiliation, enriching our understanding of close relational bonds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hila Segal
- The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Israel.
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2
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Capalbo A, de Wert G, Mertes H, Klausner L, Coonen E, Spinella F, Van de Velde H, Viville S, Sermon K, Vermeulen N, Lencz T, Carmi S. Screening embryos for polygenic disease risk: a review of epidemiological, clinical, and ethical considerations. Hum Reprod Update 2024:dmae012. [PMID: 38805697 DOI: 10.1093/humupd/dmae012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2024] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 05/30/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The genetic composition of embryos generated by in vitro fertilization (IVF) can be examined with preimplantation genetic testing (PGT). Until recently, PGT was limited to detecting single-gene, high-risk pathogenic variants, large structural variants, and aneuploidy. Recent advances have made genome-wide genotyping of IVF embryos feasible and affordable, raising the possibility of screening embryos for their risk of polygenic diseases such as breast cancer, hypertension, diabetes, or schizophrenia. Despite a heated debate around this new technology, called polygenic embryo screening (PES; also PGT-P), it is already available to IVF patients in some countries. Several articles have studied epidemiological, clinical, and ethical perspectives on PES; however, a comprehensive, principled review of this emerging field is missing. OBJECTIVE AND RATIONALE This review has four main goals. First, given the interdisciplinary nature of PES studies, we aim to provide a self-contained educational background about PES to reproductive specialists interested in the subject. Second, we provide a comprehensive and critical review of arguments for and against the introduction of PES, crystallizing and prioritizing the key issues. We also cover the attitudes of IVF patients, clinicians, and the public towards PES. Third, we distinguish between possible future groups of PES patients, highlighting the benefits and harms pertaining to each group. Finally, our review, which is supported by ESHRE, is intended to aid healthcare professionals and policymakers in decision-making regarding whether to introduce PES in the clinic, and if so, how, and to whom. SEARCH METHODS We searched for PubMed-indexed articles published between 1/1/2003 and 1/3/2024 using the terms 'polygenic embryo screening', 'polygenic preimplantation', and 'PGT-P'. We limited the review to primary research papers in English whose main focus was PES for medical conditions. We also included papers that did not appear in the search but were deemed relevant. OUTCOMES The main theoretical benefit of PES is a reduction in lifetime polygenic disease risk for children born after screening. The magnitude of the risk reduction has been predicted based on statistical modelling, simulations, and sibling pair analyses. Results based on all methods suggest that under the best-case scenario, large relative risk reductions are possible for one or more diseases. However, as these models abstract several practical limitations, the realized benefits may be smaller, particularly due to a limited number of embryos and unclear future accuracy of the risk estimates. PES may negatively impact patients and their future children, as well as society. The main personal harms are an unindicated IVF treatment, a possible reduction in IVF success rates, and patient confusion, incomplete counselling, and choice overload. The main possible societal harms include discarded embryos, an increasing demand for 'designer babies', overemphasis of the genetic determinants of disease, unequal access, and lower utility in people of non-European ancestries. Benefits and harms will vary across the main potential patient groups, comprising patients already requiring IVF, fertile people with a history of a severe polygenic disease, and fertile healthy people. In the United States, the attitudes of IVF patients and the public towards PES seem positive, while healthcare professionals are cautious, sceptical about clinical utility, and concerned about patient counselling. WIDER IMPLICATIONS The theoretical potential of PES to reduce risk across multiple polygenic diseases requires further research into its benefits and harms. Given the large number of practical limitations and possible harms, particularly unnecessary IVF treatments and discarded viable embryos, PES should be offered only within a research context before further clarity is achieved regarding its balance of benefits and harms. The gap in attitudes between healthcare professionals and the public needs to be narrowed by expanding public and patient education and providing resources for informative and unbiased genetic counselling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Capalbo
- Juno Genetics, Department of Reproductive Genetics, Rome, Italy
- Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), Department of Medical Genetics, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
| | - Guido de Wert
- Department of Health, Ethics & Society, CAPHRI-School for Public Health and Primary Care and GROW School for Oncology and Reproduction, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Heidi Mertes
- Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Liraz Klausner
- Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Edith Coonen
- Departments of Clinical Genetics and Reproductive Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands
- School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, GROW, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Francesca Spinella
- Eurofins GENOMA Group Srl, Molecular Genetics Laboratories, Department of Scientific Communication, Rome, Italy
| | - Hilde Van de Velde
- Research Group Genetics Reproduction and Development (GRAD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
- Brussels IVF, UZ Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | - Stephane Viville
- Laboratoire de Génétique Médicale LGM, Institut de Génétique Médicale d'Alsace IGMA, INSERM UMR 1112, Université de Strasbourg, France
- Laboratoire de Diagnostic Génétique, Unité de Génétique de l'infertilité (UF3472), Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
| | - Karen Sermon
- Research Group Genetics Reproduction and Development (GRAD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
| | | | - Todd Lencz
- Institute of Behavioral Science, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA
- Departments of Psychiatry and Molecular Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY 11549, USA
| | - Shai Carmi
- Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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Veller C, Coop GM. Interpreting population- and family-based genome-wide association studies in the presence of confounding. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002511. [PMID: 38603516 PMCID: PMC11008796 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
A central aim of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) is to estimate direct genetic effects: the causal effects on an individual's phenotype of the alleles that they carry. However, estimates of direct effects can be subject to genetic and environmental confounding and can also absorb the "indirect" genetic effects of relatives' genotypes. Recently, an important development in controlling for these confounds has been the use of within-family GWASs, which, because of the randomness of mendelian segregation within pedigrees, are often interpreted as producing unbiased estimates of direct effects. Here, we present a general theoretical analysis of the influence of confounding in standard population-based and within-family GWASs. We show that, contrary to common interpretation, family-based estimates of direct effects can be biased by genetic confounding. In humans, such biases will often be small per-locus, but can be compounded when effect-size estimates are used in polygenic scores (PGSs). We illustrate the influence of genetic confounding on population- and family-based estimates of direct effects using models of assortative mating, population stratification, and stabilizing selection on GWAS traits. We further show how family-based estimates of indirect genetic effects, based on comparisons of parentally transmitted and untransmitted alleles, can suffer substantial genetic confounding. We conclude that, while family-based studies have placed GWAS estimation on a more rigorous footing, they carry subtle issues of interpretation that arise from confounding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carl Veller
- Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Graham M. Coop
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, California, United States of America
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Sunde HF, Eftedal NH, Cheesman R, Corfield EC, Kleppesto TH, Seierstad AC, Ystrom E, Eilertsen EM, Torvik FA. Genetic similarity between relatives provides evidence on the presence and history of assortative mating. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2641. [PMID: 38531929 PMCID: PMC10966108 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46939-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Assortative mating - the non-random mating of individuals with similar traits - is known to increase trait-specific genetic variance and genetic similarity between relatives. However, empirical evidence is limited for many traits, and the implications hinge on whether assortative mating has started recently or many generations ago. Here we show theoretically and empirically that genetic similarity between relatives can provide evidence on the presence and history of assortative mating. First, we employed path analysis to understand how assortative mating affects genetic similarity between family members across generations, finding that similarity between distant relatives is more affected than close relatives. Next, we correlated polygenic indices of 47,135 co-parents from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and found genetic evidence of assortative mating in nine out of sixteen examined traits. The same traits showed elevated similarity between relatives, especially distant relatives. Six of the nine traits, including educational attainment, showed greater genetic variance among offspring, which is inconsistent with stable assortative mating over many generations. These results suggest an ongoing increase in familial similarity for these traits. The implications of this research extend to genetic methodology and the understanding of social and economic disparities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hans Fredrik Sunde
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
| | | | - Rosa Cheesman
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Elizabeth C Corfield
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Thomas H Kleppesto
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | | | - Eivind Ystrom
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Espen Moen Eilertsen
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Fartein Ask Torvik
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Kleppesto TH, Czajkowski NO, Sheehy-Skeffington J, Vassend O, Roysamb E, Eftedal NH, Kunst JR, Ystrom E, Thomsen L. The genetic underpinnings of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation explain political attitudes beyond Big Five personality. J Pers 2024. [PMID: 38386613 DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12921] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2023] [Revised: 02/06/2024] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Political attitudes are predicted by the key ideological variables of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), as well as some of the Big Five personality traits. Past research indicates that personality and ideological traits are correlated for genetic reasons. A question that has yet to be tested concerns whether the genetic variation underlying the ideological traits of RWA and SDO has distinct contributions to political attitudes, or if genetic variation in political attitudes is subsumed under the genetic variation underlying standard Big Five personality traits. METHOD We use data from a sample of 1987 Norwegian twins to assess the genetic and environmental relationships between the Big Five personality traits, RWA, SDO, and their separate contributions to political policy attitudes. RESULTS RWA and SDO exhibit very high genetic correlation (r = 0.78) with each other and some genetic overlap with the personality traits of openness and agreeableness. Importantly, they share a larger genetic substrate with political attitudes (e.g., deporting an ethnic minority) than do Big Five personality traits, a relationship that persists even when controlling for the genetic foundations underlying personality traits. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that the genetic foundations of ideological traits and political attitudes are largely non-overlapping with the genetic foundations of Big Five personality traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Haarklau Kleppesto
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Nikolai Olavi Czajkowski
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Division for Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington
- Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
- Center for the Experimental Philosophical Investigation of Discrimination, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Olav Vassend
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Espen Roysamb
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Division for Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | | | - Jonas R Kunst
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Eivind Ystrom
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Division for Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Lotte Thomsen
- Center for the Experimental Philosophical Investigation of Discrimination, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Torvik FA, Sunde HF, Cheesman R, Eftedal NH, Keller MC, Ystrom E, Eilertsen EM. Non-random Mating Patterns in Education, Mental, and Somatic Health: A Population Study on Within- and Cross-Trait Associations. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.11.27.23299055. [PMID: 38077008 PMCID: PMC10705620 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.27.23299055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2023]
Abstract
Partners resemble each other on many traits, such as health and education. The traits are usually studied one by one in data from established couples and with potential participation bias. We studied all Norwegian parents who had their first child between 2016 and 2020 (N=187,926) and the siblings of these parents. We analysed grade point averages (GPA), educational attainment (EA), and medical records with prospective diagnostic data on 10 mental and 10 somatic health conditions measured 10 to 5 years before childbirth. We found stronger partner similarity in mental (median r=0.14) than in somatic health conditions (median r=0.04), with ubiquitous cross-trait correlations for mental health conditions (median r=0.13). GPA correlated 0.43 and EA 0.47 between partners. High GPA or EA was associated with better mental (median r=-0.16) and somatic (median r=-0.08) health in partners. Elevated correlations for mental health (median r=0.25) in established couples indicated convergence. Analyses of data on siblings and in-laws revealed deviations from direct assortment, suggesting instead indirect assortment based on related traits. GPA and EA accounted for 30-40% of the partner correlations in health. This has implications for the distribution of risk factors among children and for studies of intergenerational transmission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fartein Ask Torvik
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Hans Fredrik Sunde
- Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Rosa Cheesman
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | | | - Matthew C. Keller
- Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| | - Eivind Ystrom
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Espen Moen Eilertsen
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Gorelik AJ, Paul SE, Miller AP, Baranger DAA, Lin S, Zhang W, Elsayed NM, Modi H, Addala P, Bijsterbosch J, Barch DM, Karcher NR, Hatoum AS, Agrawal A, Bogdan R, Johnson EC. Associations Between Polygenic Scores for Cognitive and Non-cognitive Factors of Educational Attainment and Measures of Behavior, Psychopathology, and Neuroimaging in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.10.27.23297675. [PMID: 37961716 PMCID: PMC10635216 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.27.23297675] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2023]
Abstract
Background Both cognitive and non-cognitive (e.g., traits like curiosity) factors are critical for social and emotional functioning and independently predict educational attainment. These factors are heritable and genetically correlated with a range of health-relevant traits and behaviors in adulthood (e.g., risk-taking, psychopathology). However, whether these associations are present during adolescence, and to what extent these relationships diverge, could have implications for adolescent health and well-being. Methods Using data from 5,517 youth of European ancestry from the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM Study, we examined associations between polygenic scores (PGS) for cognitive and non-cognitive factors and outcomes related to cognition, socioeconomic status, risk tolerance and decision-making, substance initiation, psychopathology, and brain structure. Results Cognitive and non-cognitive PGSs were both positively associated with cognitive performance and family income, and negatively associated with ADHD and severity of psychotic-like experiences. The cognitive PGS was also associated with greater risk-taking, delayed discounting, and anorexia, as well as lower likelihood of nicotine initiation. The cognitive PGS was further associated with cognition scores and anorexia in within-sibling analyses, suggesting these results do not solely reflect the effects of assortative mating or passive gene-environment correlations. The cognitive PGS showed significantly stronger associations with cortical volumes than the non-cognitive PGS and was associated with right hemisphere caudal anterior cingulate and pars-orbitalis in within-sibling analyses, while the non-cognitive PGS showed stronger associations with white matter fractional anisotropy and a significant within-sibling association for right superior corticostriate-frontal cortex. Conclusions Our findings suggest that PGSs for cognitive and non-cognitive factors show similar associations with cognition and socioeconomic status as well as other psychosocial outcomes, but distinct associations with regional neural phenotypes in this adolescent sample.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron J Gorelik
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Sarah E Paul
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Alex P Miller
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - David A A Baranger
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Shuyu Lin
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Wei Zhang
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Nourhan M Elsayed
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Hailey Modi
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Pooja Addala
- Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Janine Bijsterbosch
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States
| | - Deanna M Barch
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Nicole R Karcher
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Alexander S Hatoum
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Arpana Agrawal
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Ryan Bogdan
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Emma C Johnson
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
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Varella MAC. Nocturnal selective pressures on the evolution of human musicality as a missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1215481. [PMID: 37860295 PMCID: PMC10582961 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1215481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Human musicality exhibits the necessary hallmarks for biological adaptations. Evolutionary explanations focus on recurrent adaptive problems that human musicality possibly solved in ancestral environments, such as mate selection and competition, social bonding/cohesion and social grooming, perceptual and motor skill development, conflict reduction, safe time-passing, transgenerational communication, mood regulation and synchronization, and credible signaling of coalition and territorial/predator defense. Although not mutually exclusive, these different hypotheses are still not conceptually integrated nor clearly derived from independent principles. I propose The Nocturnal Evolution of Human Musicality and Performativity Theory in which the night-time is the missing piece of the adaptationist puzzle of human musicality and performing arts. The expansion of nocturnal activities throughout human evolution, which is tied to tree-to-ground sleep transition and habitual use of fire, might help (i) explain the evolution of musicality from independent principles, (ii) explain various seemingly unrelated music features and functions, and (iii) integrate many ancestral adaptive values proposed. The expansion into the nocturnal niche posed recurrent ancestral adaptive challenges/opportunities: lack of luminosity, regrouping to cook before sleep, imminent dangerousness, low temperatures, peak tiredness, and concealment of identity. These crucial night-time features might have selected evening-oriented individuals who were prone to acoustic communication, more alert and imaginative, gregarious, risk-taking and novelty-seeking, prone to anxiety modulation, hedonistic, promiscuous, and disinhibited. Those night-time selected dispositions may have converged and enhanced protomusicality into human musicality by facilitating it to assume many survival- and reproduction-enhancing roles (social cohesion and coordination, signaling of coalitions, territorial defense, antipredatorial defense, knowledge transference, safe passage of time, children lullabies, and sexual selection) that are correspondent to the co-occurring night-time adaptive challenges/opportunities. The nocturnal dynamic may help explain musical features (sound, loudness, repetitiveness, call and response, song, elaboration/virtuosity, and duetting/chorusing). Across vertebrates, acoustic communication mostly occurs in nocturnal species. The eveningness chronotype is common among musicians and composers. Adolescents, who are the most evening-oriented humans, enjoy more music. Contemporary tribal nocturnal activities around the campfire involve eating, singing/dancing, storytelling, and rituals. I discuss the nocturnal integration of musicality's many roles and conclude that musicality is probably a multifunctional mental adaptation that evolved along with the night-time adaptive landscape.
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Willems YE, Raffington L. Trait correlations in human couples. Nat Hum Behav 2023; 7:1420-1421. [PMID: 37653147 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01673-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/02/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Yayouk E Willems
- Max Planck Research Group Biosocial - Biology, Social Disparities, and Development, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Laurel Raffington
- Max Planck Research Group Biosocial - Biology, Social Disparities, and Development, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
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