Master
versus tyro-it’s all in the mind or so recent research suggests. The ten
thousand hours of learning that is rumored to be required to become a master
(talent a prerequisite, of course) are supposed to result in permanent changes
in local brain structure. How do we know? The big magnet tells all.
The
latest technique is called diffusion tensor imaging. This maps white and gray
matter nicely. Only physicists could love DTI as an acronym for an instrumental
technique, but the results are something that everybody can appreciate. The
latest use is by Roberts et al from UC London on a group of black belt karate
masters in comparison with ordinary guys (1). The work is reported in Cerebral
Cortex.
They
took a dozen of each group and persuaded them to punch hell out of a vertical
target that would measure force. They also stood on a plate to measure force
and each had infrared markers over their arms, shoulders, and hips so motion
tracking could be used.
The
black belts hit faster, harder and with greater precision, so their 14 years of
practice hadn’t been wasted. The brain scans also showed some differences. The
black belts had more white matter in parts of the cerebellum that is critical
in the voluntary control of movement, that is, the primary motor cortex and the
superior cerebellar peduncles.
White
matter and black belts didn’t exactly match. The age, length of training made
differences within the group, but they all showed bigger difference with the
control group than within their own group.
Now
someone needs to follow groups of young athletes or musicians (good hand and
eye coordination is required here too) and follow their white matter changes
during their training and compare that to average incompetents like us lesser
mortals in order to find out whether 10k hours really are required to become an
expert.
