Breakthrough: Intelligence Has Something To Do With The Brain

...if you can believe that.

The thickness of the cortex — the outer layer of the brain that controls high-level functions such as memory — started off thinner than that of the other groups, but rapidly gained depth until it was thicker than normal during the early teens. All three groups converged, with the children having cortexes of roughly equal thickness by age 19. The strongest effect was seen in the prefrontal cortex, which controls planning and reasoning.

Let me see if I have this straight: The part of the brain most closely associated with higher-level functions is -- let me read this again, it's all too astounding -- thicker in those with higher IQ's.

"My first impression was 'wow, this is amazing," says Jeremy Gray, a psychologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Are only the stupid studying intelligence?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought it's been known for years that the thickness and number of "folds" in the cortex (folds give you more surface area, and thus more cotex tisssue) were greater in the intelligent.

In related breaking science news, people with big muscles tend to be stronger than those with small muscles.

posted by Ace at 05:19 PM

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