Mission

Working group 1: Meta-analysis: Assemble existing phenotype-genotype data on musicality in support of coordinated GWAS meta-analyses, using harmonized phenotypes across existing datasets. Researchers who are already working hands-on with musicality-genetic linked datasets may be particularly interested in this working group.

Working group 2: Deploying musicality phenotyping in ongoing epidemiological/genetic studies. Work towards scalable and robust phenotypes that are effective for large cohorts, in support of the large sample sizes necessary to detect the modest gene effect sizes that one might expect to underlie musicality. Researchers who have relationships with ongoing large-scale (health/epidemiological/genetic) population datasets (containing genotyped data) may be particularly interested in this working group.

Working group 3: Ethical, Legal and Social issues. Musicality genetics finds itself at the intersection of music cognition and cognitive genomics, two fields that have complicated and sensitive histories. This working group will focus on developing guidelines for ethically and socially responsible conduct of musicality genetics research.

N.B. Intent to actively participate in one (or more) working groups is a requirement for attending the meetings and joining the consortium.