Abstract
This study investigates the association between intelligence and brain power responses to a passive audiovisual stimulation. We measure the power of gamma-range steady-state responses (SSRs) as well as intelligence and other aspects of neurocognitive function in 40 healthy males born in 1953. The participants are a part of a Danish birth cohort study and the data therefore include additional information measured earlier in life. Our main power measure is the difference in power between a visual stimulation and a combined audiovisual stimulation. We hypothesize and establish empirically that the power measure is associated with intelligence. In particular, we find a highly significant correlation between the power measure and present intelligence scores. The association is robust to controlling for size-at-birth measures, length of education, speed of processing as well as a range of other potentially confounding factors. Interestingly, we find that intelligence scores measured earlier in life (childhood, youth, late midlife), are also correlated with the present-day power measure, suggesting a deep connection between intelligence and the power measure. Finally, we find that the power measure has a high sensitivity for detection of an intelligence score below the average.
Highlights
The causes of human intelligence is a long-standing scientific topic that can be traced back to Hippocrates, who posited that the study of the mind must begin with the study of the brain
We first conduct an analysis of intelligence and the steady-state response” (SSR) obtained across all electrodes on the scalp (Supplementary Table A2)
We find that the difference in the power for the total brain in response to the visual stimulation (i.e., PV,Total) is borderline negatively correlated with intelligence (R2: 0.07; p = 0.054) and that the difference in the power for the total brain in response to the auditory stimulation (i.e., PA,Total) is insignificantly correlated with intelligence
Summary
The causes of human intelligence is a long-standing scientific topic that can be traced back to Hippocrates, who posited that the study of the mind must begin with the study of the brain. Spearman (1927) proposed that individual performance in a variety of cognitive activities, including perception, attention, memory, and language is largely determined by a single general ability factor. While psychologists have long been able to measure individual’s level of intelligence by use of cognitive tests, the fundamental driving force of human intelligence is still poorly understood and subject to intense scientific investigation. The development of non-cognitive testing methods of measurement of intelligence is still a largely unexplored terrain. The hypothesis provides a possible explanation to the observed phenomenon that, when working on the same cognitive task, higher-IQ individuals elicit a lower level of brain activity than lowerIQ individuals
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