Born Genius

Nature versus Nurture

You might find it hard to believe, but 8 year old Mark Yu is already playing the piano professionally. Mark could play the piano since he was 2 years of age!! This brings up the question: Does the brain shape musicians or do the musicians the brain?  When the brain of musicians was scanned they saw that there were areas of the brain that were larger than usual.  Mark is a gifted child who has the drive to practice piano 8 hours a day. Gifted kids drive themselves, and don’t need to be pushed by anyone else.

               In the other extreme, in 1970 they discovered Genie, she had been isolated in a room for 12 and a half years, his father was mentally unstable and had decided to hide her child from the rest of the world. She spent her childhood in total isolation; she gave scientist the opportunity to see how nature affects the brain. When you don’t have love or sociability in your childhood the nerves in your brain responsible for grammar will separate. If you don’t use it, you lose it.