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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
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For many years now, neuroscientists have been telling the subjects of experiments something like this: “Please lie in the MRI scanner and relax. When you see the task instructions come onto the screen in front of you, do your best.” The researcher would then use the brain’s activity during the “lie there and relax” period as a mere control condition; the object of scientific interest was always what “lights up” when a subject reads, makes financial decisions or performs some other task.
That has changed. It is now appreciated that the mind never rests. And that if we measure brain activation while a person lies in a scanner doing nothing, naturally occurring fluctuations will reveal networks that help elucidate the functional organization of the brain in fascinating new ways. Initial studies indicate that these “resting state” networks may help cast light on mental illness. And now, tantalizing new results suggest a significant link between these networks and intelligence.
Intelligence is a complex and historically controversial topic, in large part because it is difficult to define and to measure. Psychometricians have developed paper-and-pencil tests of general intelligence that tend to predict performance on a wide range of other tests and a number of life outcomes, like salary. Neuroscientists have used modern imaging methods to discover the neural correlates of intelligence as measured by these widely used tests. Many of these studies have examined the relations of IQ to brain anatomy, generally finding that greater grey matter volume or thickness across many brain regions correlates with higher IQ scores. Others have looked at functional measures taken while people perform tasks, generally finding that bilateral frontal and parietal regions are most often associated with performance on intelligence tests.
But now, for the first time, functional measures of the resting brain are providing new insights into network properties of the brain that are associated with IQ scores. In essence, they suggest that in smart people, distant areas of the brain communicate with each other more robustly than in less smart people.
In a recent paper, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by Ming Song, examined how resting brain networks differ between people who have superior versus average IQ scores. They used graph theory to quantify the network properties of the brain, such as how strong the communication is among distant brain regions. A graph is a mathematical representation that is composed of nodes (or brain regions) and connections between them (functional connectivity or temporal correlations), and can be used to characterize neural networks. Like prior researchers, they found that the posterior cingulate cortex is the hub of the human brain – it is the most widely and intensively connected region of the human brain at rest. Moreover, the strength of connectivity among distant brain regions was greater in people with superior than average IQ scores. Another 2009 study came to a similar conclusion, and noted that the strongest relations between resting connectivity and IQ were observed in the frontal and parietal brain regions, which have been most associated with performance on IQ tests.
Thus, remarkably, the strength of long-distance connections in the resting brain can be related to performance on IQ tests. We are often impressed when people make creative connections between ideas – perhaps long-range connectivity in the brain empowers such mental range.
These “at rest” findings fit well into what we know of how intelligence develops in children. Previous work discovered that in typical brain development there is a progression from local to distributed network connectivity. In children, there is strong local connection and weak distant connection. That changes with age: local connectivity decreases and long-distance connectivity increases. Intelligence by almost any measure increases with age until young adulthood. Interestingly, Earlier research also found that slower thinning of the neocortex (often interpreted as pruning of synapses) was associated with higher IQs in children; perhaps the slower pruning allowed for the establishment of long-lasting long-distance connections. Thus, the strength of long-distance connections in the brain may support the growth of intelligence and influence variation in adult intelligence.
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19 Comments
Add CommentFascinating. I'd be interested to know what instructions the subjects receive when asked to "rest" their brains.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe relationship between long range connection strength and IQ also seems related to the finding last year that training visual and aural working memory at the same time can transfer to intelligence improvement... (dual n-back training and working memory)
Brilliant! !
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow come the authors did not use the words "Default network" of the resting brain?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhat a surprise...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisObviously a "resting" brain would be a better pointer towards the inner self. Once an order(interaction) is given (external stimuli) the training(experiences) start to muddle the waters even more. Basically its easier to see a reflection in a pond service if a stone hasn't been thrown in it.
obviously,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisits easier to see an image in a pond if the stone hasn't been thrown in ...
and thats the mind mulling over something... hehehe
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was tryng to think of ways to express the "subnet" of the consciousness as it relaxes and thinks it's idle thoughts, and how that network topology might differ from when someone's working on something specific. Razausman's "stone in the pond" analogy is excellent! Thank you!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's especiallly useful to consider specific guided thinking on any subject as a stone, and realize that the location of the stones will undoubtedly lead to strengthened network connections, creating a self re-enforcing feedback loop that some people experience as cognitively 'spinning' or 'churning' on something (whether it be math problems or relationship problems). Their brains temporarily take on autistic characteristics.
Speaking of semi-sequitors, this makes me wonder what effect anti-anxiety meds have on autistic children, and whether a regular dose would allow more normal cognitive development, sicne they wouldn't be fixating on the internal stones they cotninually toss.
Ha, it even explains whi epiphanies occur in bathtubs! :-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is GOLD! This idea supplies an important piece that was missing from Jeff Hawkings' ON INTELLIGENCE. This might also be the reason why 'image streaming' seem to increase IQ.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow, suppose that in the course of self-education, some bright youth experiment only modestly with drugs, noting inconsistencies in their usual mental rest state. The experience of intensified introspection may become overloaded with different timings for long distance brain connections thus, perhaps, causing marked adaptational shifts in behaviour with new altruistic traits, when an initial goal may have been simply to augment affiliation through less preoccupation to be better liked.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe phrase " Further, recent behavioral research has show that intensive training with adults can increase IQ-type scores" is oK if we aplly it to all people, but always, people with higher QI will get better scores them the another with lower QI
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe phrase " Further, recent behavioral research has show that intensive training with adults can increase IQ-type scores" is oK if we aplly it to all people, but always, people with higher QI will get better scores them the another with lower QI.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this> It's especiallly useful to consider specific guided thinking on any subject as a stone, and realize that the location of the stones will undoubtedly lead to strengthened network connections, creating a self re-enforcing feedback loop...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually, it's the other way around. By NOT focusing on an issue, you allow the brain to make random associations. The next comment talked about ideas in bathtubs, and that's the point. Many brilliant ideas occur in the shower (or the tub) when the mind isn't focused and you're in safe pleasant surroundings. The mind wanders.
Intentional (or purposive) thinking (such as solving a math problem) works because the mind blocks out irrelevant issues in order to focus on rules and process. However, that means brilliant insights are also blocked out.
You ended with the following with some very interesting Socratic questions:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1 - "Are you most “you” when you’re racing through work?" ...Or ...
2 - "When you’re simply sitting in a chair, mind adrift, just being?"
What I am most interested in is .... a) If the brain can be likened to as the secondary field of a mind-brain inductive intelligent trans-former ... and b) the "Mind" [mind adrift] serves as the primary field inducing info-electro-magnetic wave patterns into the secondary field ... then does it not make intuitive sense that a) we need to silence the brain ... b) in order to listen to the effects of when – and as you put it ... c) "we are most we." :-)
I would love to hear from those working in the research arena seeking to better understand and algorithmically model the mind-brain field of mutual inductive resonance. This is my passion” By mapping the innermost IEMF patterns of (silent brain) mind states ... can we uncover and thus map and model the operating system of the mind of humanity ... and all living forces of the universe?
Lawrence Carson
Boise, Idaho
ljohncarson@msn.com
Makes me wonder if there's a correlation to be found between IQ and long showers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisiBrain by Gary Small reports less long distance connections with people who play video games. Does this mean less intelligent people play video games, or do video games make people stupid?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder if what kinds of expectations patients had when going into the MRI affect the "resting" activity of the brain.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'd like to know if they find any relationship between a patient's expectations before going into the MRI and the "resting" brain activity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi'd like to see the relationship between intelligence and creativity, if there is any way of measuring the latter.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this