Table_1_What Makes Musical Prodigies?.docx

Musical prodigies reach exceptionally high levels of achievement before adolescence. Despite longstanding interest and fascination in musical prodigies, little is known about their psychological profile. Here we assess to what extent practice, intelligence, and personality make musical prodigies a distinct category of musician. Nineteen former or current musical prodigies (aged 12–34) were compared to 35 musicians (aged 14–37) with either an early (mean age 6) or late (mean age 10) start but similar amount of musical training, and 16 non-musicians (aged 14–34). All completed a Wechsler IQ test, the Big Five Inventory, the Autism Spectrum Quotient, the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire, the Dispositional Flow Scale, and a detailed history of their lifetime music practice. None of the psychological traits distinguished musical prodigies from control musicians or non-musicians except their propensity to report flow during practice. The other aspects that differentiated musical prodigies from their peers were the intensity of their practice before adolescence, and the source of their motivation when they began to play. Thus practice, by itself, does not make a prodigy. The results are compatible with multifactorial models of expertise, with prodigies lying at the high end of the continuum. In summary, prodigies are expected to present brain predispositions facilitating their success in learning an instrument, which could be amplified by their early and intense practice happening at a moment when brain plasticity is heightened.

音乐神童在青春期前便达到了令人瞩目的成就。尽管长期以来，人们对音乐神童充满兴趣和好奇，但关于他们的心理特征所知甚少。本研究旨在探讨实践、智力和个性在何种程度上构成了音乐神童这一独特的音乐家类别。我们对19位过去或现在的音乐神童（年龄在12至34岁之间）与35位音乐家（年龄在14至37岁之间，其中早期开始练习者平均年龄为6岁，晚期开始者平均年龄为10岁，但他们的音乐训练量相似）以及16位非音乐家（年龄在14至34岁之间）进行了比较。所有参与者均完成了韦克斯勒智力量表、五大人格特质问卷、自闭症谱系问卷、巴塞罗那音乐奖励问卷、倾向性心流量表以及他们终身音乐实践的详细历史记录。除了报告在练习中体验到的心流倾向之外，没有其他心理特征能够将音乐神童与控制组音乐家或非音乐家区分开来。将音乐神童与其同龄人区分开来的其他方面还包括他们在青春期前的练习强度以及他们开始演奏时的动机来源。因此，仅仅练习本身并不能造就一个神童。研究结果与多因素专家模型相符，神童位于这一连续体的较高端。总之，我们预期神童将展现出有助于他们在学习乐器方面取得成功的脑部先天的优势，这种优势可以通过他们早期且密集的练习得到增强，而这些练习发生在大脑可塑性增强的时刻。