Theintelligence quotient (IQ), the standard that measures a person’s intelligence, can increase or decrease during adolescence, according to a study by University College London (United Kingdom) published in the journalNature. This is the first study to suggest that this valueit is not constant throughout life.
In a series of experiments carried out in 2004 with adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16, the researchers, led by Cathy Price, analyzed the brain structures of the subjects with the help of magnetic resonance imaging in addition to subjecting them tointelligence tests. When they repeated the tests four years later, they found thatIQ had increased in some cases and decreased in others by up to 20 points, and that the changes coincided with variations in brain structure. Specifically, changes in verbal IQ were associated with variations in an area of the brain related to speech, the left motor cortex, while increases in non-verbal test scores were associated with an increase in gray matter density in the anterior cerebellum, which integrates sensory and motor information and participates in movements.
“We tend to advise children and decide the course that their education will follow when they are young, but we have just verified that their intelligence continues to develop and can even improve until much later,” say the authors of the research. And they add that the study confirms that brain structure can change in adult life, and IQ too, because our brain continually adapts.
