Practice doesn't always make perfect when it comes to becoming the next Mozart, a new study suggests. Researchers compared pairs of identical twins, and found that no matter how hard one twin had practised, the other twin who had practiced much less still had an equal level of ability in certain musical skills. This may be because some aspects of musical talent are built into the genes (基因), the researchers said.
Miriam Mosey, a scientist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and her team looked at the DNA of 1, 211 pairs of adult identical twins, who share almost 100 percent of their genes. Identical twins are born from the same single egg and often look very similar in appearance. They also examined the DNA of 1,358 pairs of fraternal twins (异卵双胞胎), who share an average of 50 percent of their genes. Those who played a musical instrument or sang reported how many years they practiced, and for how many hours a week.
Mosey then tested their musical abilities to see if practice had an effect on ability. She looked at how well people could tell differences in pitch (音调).
Like most people, Mosey used to think that those who put in more practice time would earn higher scores on their ability than those who practiced less. But when she compared lifetime practice scores with musical abilities between identical twins, Mosey found no relationship between the amount of practice time and her level of musical ability. Two twins could have an equal level of musical ability, no matter how much more one twin practiced compared with the other.
The researchers concluded that genetics play a larger role than practice in certain aspects of musical talent.
Mosey and her colleagues made another interesting finding: Genes may determine a person's motivation (动机) to practice. The majority of participants who reported practicing a lot also shared a high percentage of the same genes.
