Source: NOVA scienceNOW: "How Smart Can We Get?"
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This video adapted from NOVA scienceNOW explores new research concerning intelligence. Richard Haier and Rex Young are assessing intelligence by measuring brain structure instead of test performance. Using a new type of scanner that instantaneously detects brain activity, they are examining which parts of the brain are at work when we problem solve and how communication occurs across the network of gray and white matter. The scientists think that this kind of brain activity may not be the same for everyone and that such differences may be related to perceived levels of intelligence.
Download and ShareWhat is intelligence, and where in the brain is it found? The answer to the first question remains highly debatable. But some scientists say the answer to the second question is becoming clear.
Scientists have known about the structure of the brain for centuries. Each part of the brain was once viewed as a separate island, solely in charge of specific functions. But while neurological activities such as speech, vision, and hearing take place in fixed locations, today’s neuroscientists believe that individual differences in intelligence depend only in part upon differences in specific areas of the brain. It’s the efficiency by which information travels through the different parts that matters more.
Using today’s brain imaging tools, scientists can visualize where in the brain intelligence occurs. One device that measures brain activity is the magneto-encephalogram (MEG). While other types of brain scanners detail the geography of the brain or detect blood flow, MEG scanners track the magnetic signals that neurons give off as they communicate. This allows scientists to assess how the networks of the brain talk to each other in real time.
If you ask a person connected to an MEG scanner to solve a problem, you will see very rapid and complicated brain activity as different neural networks engage. Different brain areas will turn on and off in a variety of brain areas in some sequence. From MEG data, it’s clear that problem solving involves more than just the frontal lobes. It’s also clear that not every person uses the same parts of the brain to solve a problem.
Over the past decade, the study of human brain tissue has been key to increasing our understanding of the functions and underlying mechanisms of the brain. What scientists have learned has led to the development of genetic tests and treatments for brain-related conditions such as Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Across the country, a number of centralized repositories, or “brain banks,” collect, store, and distribute human brain specimens for research. The specimens come from donors, some of whom had healthy and normally functioning brains at the time of their death, and some of whom exhibited disease symptoms. Both have value depending on the research being done.
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