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Aug 12, 2009 10:00 pm US/Central
Local Researchers Use Twins To Study Learning
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Think back to the dreaded SAT in high school. Were you better at the math section or language? North Texas researchers want to know how much your life experience has to do with academic strength and how much you're just born with. What they find could change how your children are educated.
At first glance, Kody and Gray Jackson may look like regular siblings, but take a closer look. "We meet people and we're like oh by the way, I have someone who looks just like me," Kody said.
They're 19-year-old identical twins.
"Our mom even had to mark our baby pictures to tell which one was which," Kody said. "I was red, mainly, but really any color but blue," his brother Gray said.
Because of their identical genetic make-up, there's something inside their brains that North Texas researchers say could hold the key to answering an important question.
"What are you born with, and what can you acquire as a function of your experiences," questioned Dr. Denise Park, with T. Boone Pickens Distinguished Chair of Brain Sciences at UT Dallas.
Dr. Park along with Dr. Thad Polk from the University of Michigan are studying twins to determine if complex skills like math and reading are programmed in your brain at birth.
"There are people who think I was just born being really bad at math," Dr. Polk said. "Well, is that really true?"
With the twins inside an M.R.I. machine, the researchers have them answer simple "yes or no" questions about language and math.
"We literally are looking at what parts of the brain are active when the brain sees a certain category or stimulus," Dr. Park said.
Being genetic matches, researchers are focusing on the twins brain patterns when exposed to the same stimuli. If they show similar brain patterns, Dr. Park says that means the skill is most likely a genetic behavior.
It's actually a really fundamental important question about how we should structure educational experiences and what we can change and what we can't," she said.
Kody and Gray Jackson say they were excited to be a part of the study.
"Hopefully something will come out of it, but if not, it was cool just being an actual part of that," Gray said.
As for being twins, Kody says it's pretty cool.
"If I ever need a kidney, I know who to call."
The study doesn't just involve identical twins. Dr. Park and Dr. Polk are recruiting fraternal twins, too. Participants will be paid for their time. For more details on how to sign up, click here.
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