Prodigies of Nature

Public Advertiser 31 May 1764

Trehub S.E. The developmental origins of musicality. Nature Neuroscience 2003; 6: 669–73

Trainor L.J. , Heinmiller B.M. The development of evaluative responses to music. Infant Behav Dev 1998; 21: 77–88

Cox C. The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1926: 592–5

Treffert D.A. The idiot savant: a review of the syndrome. Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145: 563–72

Brody N. Intelligence. New York: Academic Press, 1992

Ericsson K.A. , Krampe R. , Tesch-Römer C. The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychol Rev 1993; 100: 363–406

Coon H. , Carey G. Genetic and environmental determinants of musical ability in twins. Behav Genet 1989; 19: 183–93

Walker S.O. , Petrill S.A. , Spinath F.M. , Plomin R. Nature, nurture and academic achievement: a twin study of teacher assessments of 7 year olds. Br J Educ Psychol 2004; 74: 323–42

Deutsch O.E. Mozart: a Documentary Biography, 3rd edn. London: Simon & Schuster, 1990

Anderson E. The letters of Mozart and his Family, 3rd edn. London: Macmillan, 1989: 48–9

Barrington D. An account of a very remarkable young musician. Phil Trans R Soc 1770; 60: 54–64

Palmer T. Menuhin: a Family Portrait. London: Faber & Faber, 1991; 37: 190

Sloboda J.A. , Howe M.J.A. Biographical precursors of musical excellence; an interview study. Psychol Music 1991; 19: 110–20

Warren J.D. Variations in the musical brain. J R Soc Med 1999; 92: 571–5

Schlaug G. , Jaencke L. , Huang Y. , Steinmetz H. Increased corpus callosum size in musicians. Neuropsychologia 1995; 33: 1047–55

Elbert T.C. , Pantev C. , Wienbruch C. , Rockstroh B. , Taub E. Increased cortical representation of the fingers of the left hand in string players. Science 1995; 270: 305–7

Gregersen P.K. Instant recognition: the genetics of pitch perception. Am J Hum Genet 1998; 62: 221–3

Schlaug G. , Jaencke L. , Huang Y. , Steinmetz H. In vivo evidence of structural brain asymmetry in musicians. Science 1995; 267: 699–701

Keenan J.P. , Thangaraj V. , Halpern A.R. , Schlaug G. Absolute pitch and planum temporale. Neuroimage 2001; 14: 1402–8

Preiss S. , Jaencke L. , Schmitz-Hillebrecht J. , Steinmetz H. Child age and planum temporale asymmetry. Brain Cogn 1999; 40: 441–52

Sunday Mirror 4 June 2000

Wallace A. The Prodigy: a Biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy. New York: EP Dutton, 1986