The brain’s mass and the size of its prefrontal cortex – a region just behind the forehead – have long been believed to play a role in intelligence. New research published in the St. Louis-based Washington University Journal of Neuroscience suggests that up to ten percent of individual differences in intelligence lie in the strength of neural pathways between the brain and the left prefrontal cortex – the region linked to personality and cognitive behaviors.
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According to the study, while other regions of the brain make their own contributions to cognitive processing, the left prefrontal cortex helps brain coordinate these processes and maintain focus.
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The findings are based on an analysis of magnetic resonance image brain scans of study participants resting passively, and also of when they were engaged in a sequence of mentally challenging tasks associated with fluid intelligence, such as indicating whether an image being displayed in a sequence was the same as one previously displayed.
Can a brain scan reveal how smart you are?