Is talent inherited?

[numbskull66]

According to Lamarck any characteristic that any person has is inherited by their parents. I was wondering what everyone thought about talent. Is it inherited or does a person have to learn to do something on their own?
I really would like some input on this topic because I am having trouble starting my research paper.. any help would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks

[James]

I think potential for talent can be inherited, through genes. Whether or not the talent is recognised depends other factors like practice.

[mith]

Actually according to Lamarck, characteristics acquired in the lifetime of an organism is passed to their offspring. I play rpg games and usually talent is something innate which is inherited/genetic. Proficiency though is developed. Let me give you an example

In the game Fallout, when you start the game you pick the innate talents of your character such as "Perception" which affects shooting skill. Suppose your character starts out with really crappy perception, the beginning shotting accuracy stats would be low; but as you shoot more, the experience builds up and soon the experience with shooting will increase your accuracy as if you had the talent to begin with.

[protozoan]

But according to darwinism the talent is result of random changes in DNA. How unbelieveble for me. According to that, the talent could be lightly inherited by offsprings.

[Charlene]

Why not? Alcoholism can be inheritated, why not talent? =p
Even if one has talent in a certain category, one must take advantage of that talent and practise it frequently to reach exceptional performance. Or else, talent is useless if used in vain.

[b_d_41501]

Intelligence is thought to be a polygenic gene inheritance. Therefore, in my opinion, talents may be also inherited in such a way. I mean most actors come from an acting family, and most musicians come from a musically inclined family.

[protozoan]

I think the clue question is how talent came to live. Is it because particular group of people were listening to the music and so their children inclined to listen the music too (and play too probably) or some random changes were taking place on DNA strand so the host man of that DNA get inclined to music.

[MrMistery]

Did anyone think about natural selection? I mean, a guy who has a talent to lye will produce more offspring than a guy that always tells the truth(trust me on this one, i always tell the truth )

[Charlene]

Well, are you the one who always lies or the one who always tells the truth? lol!

[Mister Jon]

Talent is brought from a parent to a child not because of inheritance but because the parent wants to teach their talent to their child as quickly as possible and bring them up within that talent. 'A natural talent' i think is impossible, practise and a good teacher is the key.

[MrMistery]

Not quite... Here in romania we have a painter who was an orfan and grew up on the street. Used to sell his painting for food. He had talent, and no parents. My opinion is that it is poligenic, like intelligence and personality

PS: topic moved to genetics forum. Does this really connect with evolution?

[b_d_41501]

That's what I said. lol