Scans Show Different Growth for Intelligent Brains

NY Times ^ | March 30, 2006 | NICHOLAS WADE

[Pharmboy]

The brains of highly intelligent children develop in a different pattern from those with more average abilities, researchers have found after analyzing a series of imaging scans collected over 17 years.

The discovery, some experts expect, will help scientists understand intelligence in terms of the genes that foster it and the childhood experiences that can promote it.

"This is the first time that anyone has shown that the brain grows differently in extremely intelligent children," said Paul M. Thompson, a brain-imaging expert at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The finding is based on 307 children in Bethesda, Md., an affluent suburb of Washington. Starting in 1989, they were given regular brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging, a project initiated by Dr. Judith Rapoport of the National Institute of Mental Health.

This set of scans has been analyzed by Philip Shaw, Dr. Jay Giedd and others at the institute and at McGill University in Montreal. They looked at changes in the thickness of the cerebral cortex, the thin sheet of neurons that clads the outer surface of the brain and is the seat of many higher mental processes.

The general pattern of maturation, they report in Nature today, is that the cortex grows thicker as the child ages and then thins out. The cause of the changes is unknown, because the imaging process cannot see down to the level of individual neurons.

But basically the brain seems to be rewiring itself as it matures, with the thinning of the cortex reflecting a pruning of redundant connections.

The analysis was started to check out a finding by Dr. Thompson: that parts of the frontal lobe of the cortex are larger in people with high I.Q.'s. Looking at highly intelligent 7-year-olds, the researchers said they were surprised to find that the cortex

[Pharmboy]

Not a big surprise...

[Pharmboy]

With this ping I did not intend for you to ping your lists (those that have 'em), I just thought you folks would like to see this article.

[martin_fierro]

[pennboricua]

17 year study of course they grew up to be conservatives.

[PatrickHenry]

Thanks. There was also a mention of this research in Nature: Scans suggest IQ scores reflect brain structure.

[poobear]

"Yet researchers studying IQ say the social climate is becoming more receptive to such studies, in part because it is now widely agreed that cognitive abilities are shaped by environmental factors as well as genetic ones."

Interesting article. Too bad over the course of the study they were only able to compare only 10's of scans verses hundreds. Probably safe to say the results would have confirmed the initial findings.

I'm no scientist but I ran across a young ethnic foster child when we moved here. I don't know her complete history. She did come from a neglected home however. Her cognitive abilities were that of a 2 or 3 year old. She was 7 years old in a special needs class. She was lovely but it was quite apparent this child received less attention than a zoo animal while an infant and a young developing child. Sad.

Social economics and behavioral upbringing patterns in children have to come into the equation of brain development eventually. This is NOT racist.

[MonroeDNA]

Why is it that the best athletes are worshiped, the best singers, the best musicians, the best artists, the best authors, but those who are the most intellegent are beat upon in school?

[Moderate right-winger]

I don't believe this research....advocating these types of "theories" are reminiscent of eugenicists during the Nazi era....

[Condor51]

****Why is it that the best athletes are worshiped, the best singers, the best musicians, the best artists, the best authors, but those who are the most intelligent are beat upon in school?****

Waaaaaaay back in my HS years, the guys in Band got beat up too. And NO guy after freshman year ever, ever - took "Art".

okay, we really didn't "beat them", just harassed the 'heck' out of them. And yeah a few of 'smart ones' did do Algebra homework for 'others' - at least that was the rumor.

[From many - one.]

Envy. Lack of organization.

A group of not-so-smarts organize to take the smart ones down

Large scale this was done in Russia and China.

[Moderate right-winger]

your intelligence is useless if you do not utilize it for the greater god...ntice hat so many "intelligent" people end up on the wrong side of things

[Just mythoughts]

"The finding is based on 307 children in Bethesda, Md., an affluent suburb of Washington. Starting in 1989, they were given regular brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging, a project initiated by Dr. Judith Rapoport of the National Institute of Mental Health."




Oh I believe the research, what I like to know is the rest of the story. We were not told of the "race" of the children only that they were of wealth.

[Moderate right-winger]

your intelligence is useless if you do not utilize it for the greater god...notice that so many "intelligent" people end up on the wrong side of things

[Moderate right-winger]

your intelligence is useless if you do not utilize it for the greater god...notice that so many "intelligent" people end up on the wrong side of things

[Moderate right-winger]

wealth eh? I find it amusing though that wealthy kids, with all their resources and avenues, tend to become slackers whereas poorer kids tend to be more hardworking....but those who are wealthy and hardworking tend to fare the best for good or ill

[Just mythoughts]

Interestingly "wealth" seems relevant to this study. That is why I would like to know the rest of the story.

[summer]

Also from the article (which I was just about to post, Pharmboy!):

The pattern of development may also be affected by factors like diet, hours spent in school or the number of siblings, and these may come to light by asking parents how they raised their children.

Now, I notice they did not mention "teachers" as part of the potential influence on the brain -- yet, teachers have been deemed by other research to be the #1 most influential part of a child's life. (I have mixed feelings about that.)

I also found the mention of wealth interesting in the research. What I would like to see is a study done on intelligent children in poor neighborhoods, to find out why it is that some students will grow and develop quite a bit, and others, in the same negative circumstances, do not.

I guess the researchers did not think to study the kids of crack addicts and prisoners in this study, but, they should, since these are the kinds of kids many teachers are dealing with today.

[Fairview]

Interestingly "wealth" seems relevant to this study. That is why I would like to know the rest of the story.

This is just probably a confound in the experimental design. Much biomedical research goes on in Bethesda, Maryland, just because of the proximity of the National Institutes of Health and several large and internationally prominent research hospitals. Unfortunately if you're a scientist you have to draw your study subjects from the local area--you are not going to be able to get many kids from the ghettos of Southeast DC to get on a bus for a couple of hours to come up to Bethesda to have brain scans. So you get local kids. And the local kids tend to come from a good background because Bethesda is one of the most expensive places in America to live. That also implies that their parents are smart, or they wouldn't be able to have the money to buy a house in Bethesda.

[Fairview]

My husband and I used to be intelligent. Then we had kids.

[Just mythoughts]

"I guess the researchers did not think to study the kids of crack addicts and prisoners in this study, but, they should, since these are the kinds of kids many teachers are dealing with today."


The motivation of the research was not really identified. I would also included in your above mentioned groups, children who start out their life on behavior modification meds. The majority of these children I am aware of within the public school system are not dumb children.