| Literature DB >> 25076933 |
Töres P Theorell1, Anna-Karin Lennartsson2, Miriam A Mosing2, Fredrik Ullén2.
Abstract
The hypothesis was tested that musical activities may contribute to the prevention of alexithymia. We tested whether musical creative achievement and musical practice are associated with lower alexithymia. 8000 Swedish twins aged 27-54 were studied. Alexithymia was assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. Musical achievement was rated on a 7-graded scale. Participants estimated number of hours of music practice during different ages throughout life. A total life estimation of number of accumulated hours was made. They were also asked about ensemble playing. In addition, twin modelling was used to explore the genetic architecture of the relation between musical practice and alexithymia. Alexithymia was negatively associated with (i) musical creative achievement, (ii) having played a musical instrument as compared to never having played, and - for the subsample of participants that had played an instrument - (iii) total hours of musical training (r = -0.12 in men and -0.10 in women). Ensemble playing added significant variance. Twin modelling showed that alexithymia had a moderate heritability of 36% and that the association with musical practice could be explained by shared genetic influences. Associations between musical training and alexithymia remained significant when controlling for education, depression, and intelligence. Musical achievement and musical practice are associated with lower levels of alexithymia in both men and women. Musical engagement thus appears to be associated with higher emotional competence, although effect sizes are small. The association between musical training and alexithymia appears to be entirely genetically mediated, suggesting genetic pleiotropy.Entities:
Keywords: alexithymia; depression; emotional competence; musicality; twins
Year: 2014 PMID: 25076933 PMCID: PMC4100574 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00774
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Front Psychol ISSN: 1664-1078
Product moment correlations between the study variables in participants who have ever played or sung (men and women).
| (A) Men | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 1 | Music practice hours | |||||
| 2 | Alexithymia score | –0.12* | ||||
| 3 | Musical achievement | 0.52* | –0.11* | |||
| 4 | Education level | –0.10* | –0.17* | –0.11* | ||
| 5 | Depression score | 0.07 | 0.29* | 0.03 | –0.01 | |
| 6 | WMT | 0.06 | –0.05 | 0.15* | 0.30* | –0.04 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 1 | Music practice hours | |||||
| 2 | Alexithymia score | –0.10* | ||||
| 3 | Musical achievement | 0.41* | –0.10* | |||
| 4 | Education level | 0.08* | –0.18* | 0.10* | ||
| 5 | Depression score | 0.04 | 0.33* | –0.01 | –0.02 | |
| 6 | WMT | 0.07* | –0.04 | 0.14* | 0.24* | –0.05 |
Alexithymia marginal means (adjusted for age) in subgroups (no college/college and no ensemble playing/ensemble playing in men and women.
| Men | Women | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| No college | 47.9 +/-9.9, | 44.2 +/-10.4, | |
| College | 44.5 +/-9.5, | 40.4 +/-9.9, | |
| No ensemble | 46.5 +/-9.8, | 42.1 +/-10.3, | |
| Ensemble | 44.1 +/-9.5, | 40.1 +/-9.7, |
Twin correlations for monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) pairs (female, male, and opposite sex pairs separately) zygosity (bottom) for Toronto Alexithymia Scale and hours of practice corrected for age.
| Zygosity | TAS-20 | Hours of practice |
|---|---|---|
| MZ | 0.37 (0.31; 0.42) | 0.63 (0.60; 0.66) |
| DZ | 0.13 (0.07; 0.20) | 0.40 (0.36; 0.44) |
| MZ female | 0.42 (0.35; 0.49) | 0.59 (0.55; 0.63) |
| MZ male | 0.25 (0.14; 0.35) | 0.69 (0.65; 0.73) |
| DZ female | 0.12 (0.01; 0.23) | 0.44 (0.36; 0.51) |
| DZ male | 0.11 (-0.04; 0.25) | 0.44 (0.34; 0.52) |
| DZOS | 0.15 (0.05; 0.25) | 0.36 (0.29; 0.42) |