Marc Yu
Born Genius
Marc Yu
Marc Yu
Marc Yu is a seven year old like no other. While his friends are putting on
their pyjamas to get ready for bed, Marc gets dressed for a classical
concert, but not to watch, he's going to play. Marc can play more than
forty classical pieces from memory.
What is it that makes gifted children so special? Do they just work
harder than others or are they born with brilliant brains?
Marc has been invited to play an audition for Vassily Sinaisky, a
world-famous conductor, at the
LA Philharmonic. Maestro Sinaisky has seen talent come and go, getting the
man's ear for ten minutes is a rare privilege for anyone, let alone a
little boy.
Professor Ellen Winner, a developmental psychologist, has spent the
last fifteen years studying gifted children. When she asks Chloe, Marc's
mother, when she discovered his musical talent, she is told t6hat Marc
had been at a birthday party when he heard "Mary Had a Little
Lamb". He came home and played it on the piano. He was two years
old and had never had a piano lesson.
Stories like Marc's seem to defy logic, but science is beginning to
shed light on the enigma of God-given talent.
Gottfried Schlaug
Gottfried Schlaug started playing piano when he was seven years old.
He could have had a career in music but, decided to become a
neuroscientist instead. Gottfried has scanned the brains of dozens of
professional musicians to work out how they produce the brain-power that
music demands. He explains: "There's hardly any other skill, any
other activity, that would involve this much brain real-estate. The
right question would be: which parts of the brain are not active when
playing a musical instrument?".
Musician's brains look like they're built for this job; several areas
of the brain are bigger than normal. One of them is the cerebellum which
takes up only 10% of brain volume but contains more nerve cells than the
rest of the brain. This tiny organ works harder and faster than any
other part of the brain as it orchestrates thousands of muscle fibres in
the body.
Another area of brain that is bigger in musicians is the corpus
callosum, a strip of tissue connecting the two hemispheres. It's a
mission-critical organ in a pianist who needs to precisely synchronise
the movements of the left and the right hand sides of the body. But why
are musician's brains different? Are they born or made?
Gottfried has teamed up with Ellen Winner to investigate whether the
brain shapes music or music shapes the brain. It is a question that has
baffled scientists for a very long time. Is it nature or nurture that
makes a genius?
Genie Wiley was kept in isolation for
many years, as a child. She was rescued at the age of thirteen but never
gained the proper power of speech. This taught scientists that once a
critical window of brain development had passed, there was no going
back.
A growing brain is both vulnerable and extremely malleable. Marc's
mother expoited this quality to teach him one of the most complex languages
in the world; Cantonese. Stimulation is essential for a growing brain,
by the time as baby is born it has already done 12 weeks worth of
listening. Very often, a child's first memory is a melody. Chloe
recalls: "By the time Marc started talking, he would hum the same
symphonies I had been playing while I was pregnant". Chloe
certainly didn't waste any time with Marc's education, but is there any
point in starting this early?
In the late 1960s, America was a divided country seething with
tension. In the long hot summer of 67 the ghettos of several major
cities erupted into violence. Many African-Americans felt excluded from
society; denied access to the American Dream. Politicians tried to stem
the tide by pouring money into schooling and social programs. It didn't
work, disadvantaged children were still being left behind.
A group of psychologists in North Carolina had an idea that they
hoped might solve the problem. Joe Sparling and his team wanted to reach
children far younger than they had ever done before. The team went out
into deprived neighbourhoods and hand-picked 111 new-born babies for a
unique experiment. They called it the Abecederian Project.
Kay Gattis was a teenager living in poverty when she got pregnant.
Without intervention her son, Meishay, would have been well behind his
more privileged peers by the time he started school. Meishay joined the
project when he was six weeks old and Joe Sparling would make sure his
brain was kept busy.
The researchers had distilled the latest scientific theories on
child development into 200 learning games. However simple, each game
had a hidden agenda. The children took regular IQ tests and their
scores were compared to kids who had not had any special treatment.
Craig Ramey reports: "We didn't see any change at 3 months or
12 months. At 15 months, the way the children, literally, saw the
world began to change".
The stimulated children were learning faster, spoke more fluently
and had better IQ scores than their peers. Ramey: "By 2 years
of age, the difference between the 2 groups was dramatic".
35 years after the study began, the results are crystal clear.
For the brain there is no such thing as too early. This is
especially so with music where starting early is the norm. But, is
an early start enough to make a genius? Marc's first public
performance was at the age of three. It is only a year since he was
tinkling "Mary had a little Lamb".
Ellen Winner believes that gifted children are born with
something extra, something that upbringing cannot explain. Could it
be that Marc inherited his gift? Is there a gene for genius?
Marc Yu has a rare gift; perfect pitch. Jeffrey Bernstein, a
distinguished musician, is intrigued to know just how good Marc's
ear really is. To Marc, identifying a musical note is as easy as
naming a colour. Only one in ten thousand people have this gift.
Perfect pitch doesn't make you a musical genius, but it certainly
helps.
Robert Plowman
Robert Plowman from King's College, London is trying to find the
genes that fuel intelligence. He has signed up over 30,000 twins for
his research. The children run through a battery of tests designed
to probe their intelligence. Young twins brought up together
experience the same environment allowing Robert to take nurture out
of the equation. He compares the test scores of identical twins who
are genetically the same to non-identical twins who are genetically
distinct. Any differences in these twins test scores must be down to
what they're born with.
Using cutting-edge molecular technology, Robert compares the DNA
of the 10,000 samples he has collected, in the hope that this will
pinpoint the genes that produce the IQ differences. It becomes
obvious that they are not looking for a single gene, but hundreds of
genes working together. Robert thinks that these genes do not
produce a genius but provide a child with a particular propensity
that can then be nurtured.
To say that Marc Yu has a propensity for music is a massive
understatement. His whole world revolves around it. He practices for
up to eight hours a day, seven days a week and says he loves every
minute of it. What started as a propensity has now grown into an
obsession.
Gifted children are not just born with an aptitude but, with an
iron-will to succeed. Ellen Winner explains: "Really gifted
kids drive themselves. I call it a rage to master. Some people don't
like the word rage because it implies anger, but I like the word
because it captures the intensity".
Lang Lang
Marc reaches a landmark in his young life. A little over eight
years old and his fingers are finally long enough to span eight keys
on a piano. Bernstein: "He's passed this milestone of playing
an octave, which for an adult is a trivial task, but for Marc it has
been a goal for a long time". Now the world of grown-up music
beckons, but as he gets older he will have to meet quite different
expectations.
Puberty is a big hurdle for gifted kids, It's not
just the hormones that cause trouble. At puberty, the brain has another
go at cutting back connections. It's use it or lose it all over again
and the part that matures last is the part that a teenager really needs.
The pre-frontal cortex, the seat of judgement and self-control, normally
only finishes development at the age of 20. With biology and psychology
conspiring against him, what are Marc's chances of ever becoming a great
musician?
Lang Lang is is one of the biggest stars in classical music
today. He started playing the piano, in China, when he was three years
old. Now, he fills concert halls all over the world. Lang Lang is the
man Marc wants to be when he grows up. Marc is very fortunate, he has
been invited to meet with his hero, he has been invited backstage for an
audience with Lang Lang. They've met several time before and Marc almost
dares to call Lang Lang a friend.
Lang Lang is determined to support
Marc in any way he can. Today he has something very special to tell him;
he would like Marc to play Carnegie Hall with him in 2009.
CREDITS: The above information came from the UK Channel 5 "My
Brilliant Brain" documentary series.
Further Reading and Listening:
 |
 |
The Art of Lang
Lang (Audio CD) |
|
|
|
The Survival Guide
for Parents of Gifted Children - Sally Yankhe Walker |
