Differences in intelligence levels had so far been attributed to structural differences in certain areas of the brain . Now experts raise another possibility: Are the brains of the smartest people wired differently than the rest?
A new study published by a group of researchers at Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany) supports this theory. According to its authors, Kirsten Hilger, Christian Fiebach and Ulrike Basten, from the Department of Psychology at Goethe University, certain brain regions are more intensely involved in the flow and exchange of information between the various brain areas of the most intelligent people, while other regions appear less connected.
Understanding the fundamentals of human thought is one of the most fascinating challenges for scientists. Differences in levels of cognitive ability and consequent differences in academic performance and career success are largely attributed to differences in the degree of intelligence of individuals. The German study published in Scientific Reports shows that these differences in intelligence go hand in hand with the different patterns of integration and interconnection between the functional modules of the brain.
Hilger, Fiebach, and Basten analyzed and compared the brain MRIs of 300 individuals to investigate the neurobiological basis of human intelligence.
Already in 2015, the same team of researchers had published a meta-study in the newspaper Intelligence in which they identified several brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex, whose changes in activity were associated with different levels of intelligence. However, until now it had not been possible to examine to what extent these areas of intelligence in the human brain were connected at the functional level.
Earlier this year, Kirsten Hilger, Christian Fiebach and Ulrike Basten had also published in Intelligence that in the most intelligent people the two brain areas involved in the cognitive processing of relevant information – the anterior insular cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex – are more efficiently connected to the rest of the brain.
In contrast, the junction area between the temporal and parietal cortex, which acts as a shield for the thinking mind against irrelevant information, is more loosely connected to the rest of the brain and neural network.
Retain the important and discard the irrelevant
“These typological differences probably make it easier for the brightest people to distinguish the important information from the most irrelevant , which provides advantages to face many cognitive challenges,” says Ulrike Basten, the lead author of the new study.
In this work, the researchers establish that the brain is organized at a functional level in modules : “It is like a social network that is in turn formed by many subnets, such as families or circles of friends. Within each sub-module, the members of each Family are more strongly connected to each other than to members of other families or circles of friends. The brain works in a similar way. “
The study reveals that in the brightest individuals some of these brain sub-modules are more strongly involved in the exchange of important information that must be communicated quickly and efficiently ; and that other areas are more disconnected than less intelligent people, which probably helps them ignore the most irrelevant data.
