Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our spring member drive has ended, but it's not too late to give. You have the power to help fund the essential journalism that keeps us all informed. Help us close the gap on our spring fundraising goal! GIVE NOW

Genetics May Play a Part in Our Response to Elvis

Nathan Bringhurst has Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder critical to a recent University of Utah study connecting genes to emotional responses to music.

Newly published research from the University of Utah shows  there is  a genetic connection to the emotional response to music. For the study, music by Elvis Presley and others was played to gage emotional hormone levels in people with Williams syndrome, a well-documented genetic disorder.

University of Utah professor Dr. Julie Korenberg led the study, which is the first ever to reveal new genes that control emotional response. She is hopeful that the breakthrough will lead to better treatments of a wide spectrum of disorders.

"Social issues, and behavior anxiety, autism, depression -- these are among, I think, the most important things that we as a society need to understand and help."

Specifically, oxytocin and vasopressin blood levels were measured -- two hormones released in the brain. Oxytocin is often described as the "love hormone," but Dr. Korenberg says there's more to it:

"These higher oxytocin values are not just positive. They are also negative. So, the higher oxytocin you have, the more you tend to approach people but the higher oxytocin you have also the less adaptive behavior you have socially."

Dr. Korenberg points to the study as a turning point in understanding human emotional and behavioral systems.

At 14-years-old, Kerry began working as a reporter for KVEL “The Hot One” in Vernal, Utah. Her radio news interests led her to Logan where she became news director for KBLQ while attending Utah State University. She graduated USU with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and spent the next few years working for Utah Public Radio. Leaving UPR in 1993 she spent the next 14 years as the full time mother of four boys before returning in 2007. Kerry and her husband Boyd reside in Nibley.