THE EFFECTS OF EFFORT AND
ACHIEVEMENT ON THE BRAIN

What makes the difference between an ordinary soccer player and a great soccer player? Answer: Myelin

What makes the difference between a commonplace chess player and a champion? Answer: Myelin

What not only sharpens the blade of talent but possibly forges it?  Answer: Myelin

Myelin is a neural insulator that everyone can grow, especially during childhood.  Myelinated axons are white in appearance, the "white matter" of the brain. Although some of our myelin is genetically encoded to arrive in waves throughout childhood and into our late 20’s or 30’s, the growth of myelin is also "meritocratic".  Circuits that fire get insulated (myelinated).  

Every human skill… is created by chains of nerve fibers carrying a tiny electrical impulse—basically, a signal traveling through a circuit.  Myelin’s vital role is to wrap those nerve fibers the same way that rubber insulation wraps a copper wire, making the signal stronger and faster by preventing the electrical impulses from leaking out. 1

In The Talent Code (2009), Daniel Coyle argues that the story of effort and achievement is the story of myelin.  Although more research is clearly needed, the ideas are a powerful and credible support to the belief that all children can achieve.  It appears that the more time and energy we put into the right kind of practice, the more myelin is developed. 

Myelin, the white matter in the brain, has not previously been given much attention in studies of brain physiology, but recent studies show that white matter is not only vital to learning new skills, but it is increased during the process.  Coyle reports findings of Dr. Douglas Fields, Director of the Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.  "Much more research must be done to explore this (myelin) theory, but there is no doubt that myelin responds to the environment and participates in learning skills." 2 

In "Watching the Brain Learn" 3, Fields reports the results of two recent studies that showed significant changes, after mastering a new skill, in the part of the brain that has no neurons or synapses. Cerebral “remodeling” was observed in the white matter of the brain, after the subjects had completed lessons. One of the studies involved adults who learned to master juggling; the other study involved a group of former guerrilla warriors from Columbia who had been illiterate and were taught to read.  Both studies had control groups. MRI studies of the brains of those who had completed the juggling lessons and those who had completed the reading lessons showed an increase in the structure and organization of the white matter of particular regions of the brain.  Regarding the study of the former guerrilla warriors who completed the reading lessons, Fields states, "Since the fibers in the splenium of the corpus callosum are laid down during embryonic development, the increased bulk of the white matter in this pathway must have developed during the process of learning to read as an adult." The implications for education are significant: "This new study therefore suggests that some of the (brain structure) differences seen in dyslexia may be a consequence of reading difficulties rather than a cause." 4

Although our genes do matter, and although talent often looks predestined, we each have more potential than we might ever presume to guess.  Many contemporaries hailed Michelangelo’s Pieta as a work of pure genius.  However Michelangelo said, “If people knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful after all.” 5

Both Coyle and Fields connect the phenomenon of "talent hotbeds", such as Florence during the Renaissance and many modern day talent hotbeds to research being done on how myelin develops and how it works to insulate neural connections.  For two years, Coyle visited and studied small ramshackle “chicken-wire Harvards” around the world that produce an enormous amount of talent.  He calls the three key elements that he consistently observed in those talent hotbeds, "the talent code":

1. Deep practice
2. Ignition
3. Master coaching

Coyle asserts that deep practice is required for maximum learning and maximum myelinazation.  Practice needs to be targeted and challenging enough that people make mistakes, re-focus on the target and try again and again, always re-focusing on the target.  "Struggle is not an option; it’s a biological requirement." 6 The wrapping of myelin requires a lot of energy, focused practice, struggle and time. 

Coyle cites Stigler and Hiebert's7 analysis of schools in Japan and the United States. One study showed 44 percent of the class time in Japanese eighth grade mathematics classrooms was spent in thinking, reasoning and actively struggling with underlying concepts.  The same study found that American teachers tried to avoid having students struggle. 

The emphasis of the Common Core State Standards on Mathematical Practice (Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them; Reason abstractly and quantitatively; Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others; etc.) seems to call us to provide the kind of mathematical focus and struggle that will enhance student production of white matter.

~Kathleen Barta
Director, Teacher to Teacher Publications

1 Coyle, Daniel. 2009. The Talent Code. Random House, New York, New York., p. 5.
2 Fields, R. D., "White Matter Matters", Scientific American. March 2008, p. 59
3 Fields, R. D., "Watching the Brain Learn", Mind Matters, 11/24/09. Retrieved from this article.       
4 Ibid.
5 Coyle, D. Op cit., p. 65
6 Ibid., p. 34
7 Stigler, J. W. and Hiebert, J. 1999. The Teaching Gap: Best ideas from the world’s teachers for improving education the classroom. Free Press. New York, New York.