A study published in the scientific journal Nature revealed that people who are smarter than others do not have more gray matter; instead, a part of their brain develops differently from that of the average person.
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| The cortex develops differently in thickness when we are young (Image: BBC) |
The National Institute of Mental Health in the United States utilized scanners to study the development of the cortex, which is responsible for human thought processes, among 307 children.
They discovered that smarter children tend to have thinner cortices at around age 7, but this thickens rapidly by age 12.
In contrast, average children initially have thicker cortices, reaching their maximum thickness at age 8.
In both cases, the cortex generally thins out after reaching its thickest point; however, for children with normal intelligence, this thinning process occurs very slowly because their cortex thickens at an earlier age.
The researchers suggest that the prolonged thickening of the cortex in smarter children allows their brains to develop faster thinking speeds.
Subsequently, the rapid thinning of the cortex may be due to the brain eliminating unnecessary neural connections as it streamlines its functions.
One researcher, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, commented, “These studies show us that individuals with higher IQs do not necessarily have larger brains.”
“Thanks to brain imaging technology, we now see that the differences may be due to the way the brain develops.”
