TALENT
It takes more than art lessons to go from finger painting to portrait painting--some people may be born with artistic skill.
So says Robert Solso, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Stanford University He recently showed six faces to British portraitist Humphrey Ocean and a graduate student with no known painting skill, then asked them to draw each face on a notepad. Meanwhile, they were attached to a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner, which measured their brain activity as they worked.
While drawing, both Ocean and the student triggered the fight posterior parietal area of the brain, which is involved in identifying visual images. But the painter activated it less, likely because he processes faces more efficiently, says Solso. Both subjects also activated the fight middle frontal area, though Ocean triggered this site of "higher order thinking" more. While the student was "slavishly copying the faces," says Solso, the expert was busy integrating their features into an artistic image.
