Speeding up brain networks may boost intelligence
A new study has finally solved the decade-old mystery about where exactly intelligence lies in human brains after scientists found that it’s everywhere.
A team at Utrecht University has found that the most efficiently wired brains belong to the most intelligent people — a finding that suggests that improving this efficiency with drugs could offer a tantalising means of boosting IQ.
According to lead scientist Martijn van den Heuvel, “The concept of a networked brain isn’t so different from the transportation grids used by cars and planes.
“If you’re flying from New York to Amsterdam, you can do it in a direct flight. It’s much more effective than going from New York, then to Washington, and then to Amsterdam. It’s exactly the same idea in the brain.”
In fact, the scientists have based their findings on an analysis of 19 people — an 8-minute-long snapshots of the brains of the volunteers were taken, as they did nothing in particular, the ‘New Scientist’ reported.
After mapping the communications between tiny slivers of brain, measured by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the team found that the subjects’ brains did not go completely quiet.
Bureau Report
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