( The thickening and thinning of the brai...)Cortex Of Youth With Superior IQ Matures Fast,Health

The thickening and thinning of the brain plays an important role in distinguishing the youth with highest IQ. // The researchers at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans has found how the brain's outer layer, cortex, thickens, and will be at its peak, during the childhood stage, reflecting a high-level thinking circuitry. On the contrary it thins in the later teens due to unused neural connections as the brain restructures its operations.

"Studies of brains have taught us that people with higher IQs do not have larger brains. Thanks to brain imaging technology, we can now see that the difference may be in the way the brain develops," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.

While most previous MRI studies of brain development compared data from different children at different ages, the NIMH study sought to control for individual variation in brain structure by following the same 307 children and teens, ages 5-19, as they grew up. Most were scanned two or more times, at two-year intervals. The resulting scans were divided into three equal groups and analyzed based on IQ test scores: superior (121-145), high (109-120), and average (83-108).

The researchers found that the relationship between cortex thickness and IQ varied with age, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, seat of abstract reasoning, planning, and other "executive" functions. The smartest 7-year-olds tended to start out with a relatively thinner cortex that thickened rapidly, peaking by age 11 or 12 before thinning. In their peers with average IQ, an initially thicker cortex peaked by age 8, with gradual thinning thereafter. Those in the high range showed an intermediate trajectory (see below). While the cortex was thinning in all groups by the teen years, the superior group showed the highest rates of change.

"Brainy children are not cleverer solely by virtue of
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