Multi-tasking Is Genetic
Is the pace of the modern world getting you down? Never fear - an excuse is once again at hand. Apparently the ability to multitask is down to genetics, so get blaming your parents. Researchers from the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders in Maryland studied 194 sets of twins to determine whether the ability to hear and understand two things at the same time was down to nature or nurture.
They predicted that identical twins, which have identical DNA, would have a much higher probability of similar scores on the test than fraternal twins (that share about 50% of DNA) if the skills were hereditary.
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The test was made up of two sections. In one part of the test the volunteers had to identify different syllables that were played into their right and left ears simultaneously (dichotic listening).
In the other part of the test, words which had been digitally altered to make them hard to understand, were played into the volunteers’ right ears to see if they could recognise them.
In the simultaneous syllable tests, identical twins outscored fraternal twins, leading to the conclusion that up to 73% of the variance in dichotic listening ability is determined by genetics. That puts it on a par with Type I diabetes and height for inherited traits.
The altered word tests however showed high correlation in scores for both types of twins, suggesting that this ability is down to environment rather than genes.
In summary - if you are reading this article while listening to the radio, singing along and chatting to the person next to you - you got the good DNA. If even the thought of that makes you spill coffee on the keyboard - blame your parents.
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Image: Christoph Burgdorfer
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