Happy to share my first first-author manuscript as a post-doc on @biorxivpreprint with @silParacchini and @f_abbondanza conducted at @StAndMedicine. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.22.215376v1

We report behavioural and genetic associations of hearing and hearing left/right asymmetry with cognitive skills and neurodevelopmental conditions.

In the @CO90s cohort we show that better hearing at 7.5 years is associated with higher SES and has beneficial effects on cognitive skills and long-term educational outcomes (lower hearing threshold (HT) - better hearing).

Previous studies have typically reported a right ear advantage in adults. We found overall negative hearing threshold asymmetry (HTA), indicating a left ear advantage in children that was driven by females.

Atypical patterns of this asymmetry have been described for neurodevelopmental conditions. We found a tendency towards stronger asymmetry towards the left ear for different subgroups selected for neurodevelopmental conditions compared to sex-matched controls.

We performed the first GWAS on hearing in children and the very first GWAS on hearing asymmetry and performed polygenic risk score (PRS) analyses to uncover genetic overlaps with relevant neurodevelopmental conditions, IQ and educational attainment (EA).

We report a significant association of PRS for schizophrenia with hearing which was not mediated by SES or cognitive skills, suggesting that higher genetic risk for schizophrenia is associated with improved hearing.

Moreover, we found that higher genetic risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is linked to better hearing on the left compared to the right ear. This is in line with the behavioural trend towards a stronger left ear advantage in the ASD subgroup.

Gene-based analysis for hearing asymmetry highlighted several genes associated with contralateral axon crossing in the corpus callosum. Some of these genes have previously been implicated in ASD.

These results further support the hypothesis that pathways distinguishing the left/right axis of the brain contribute to different types of asymmetries and neurodevelopmental conditions.

Many thanks to @doctorveera for helpful comments on the PRS analysis!