Article: Genetic region linked with rare ability to recognize, name musical notes identified

Washington, July. 3 -- Scientists at the University of California-San Francisco (UNSF) say that they have identified a particular region of genes on human chromosome eight that is linked to perfect pitch, the rare ability to recognize and name musical notes without any reference pitch for comparison, at least in people of European ancestry.

Reporting their work in American Journal of Human Genetics, the researchers say that their next step will be to identify a specific gene.

The finding, part of a larger examination of families of various ancestries ' Europeans, Ashkenazi Jews, Indians and East Asians ' is the first significant genetic evidence of a role of genes in perfect pitch.

The ...

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