| Brains of Intelligent Kids Develop Differently |
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The brains of genius children develop differently than those of kids with average intelligence, according to a new study. The scientists who have been looking into young minds say that very intelligent kids do not necessarily have bigger brains but their grey matter follows a distinctly different path of growth.
The study, which was carried out at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and was led by Philip Shaw, revealed that a child’s cortex thickens during his/her childhood and starts to thin again after reaching its peak. That means the more intelligent a child is, the later he/she will experience this peak.
As the intelligence may have tied with how the brain develops during childhood than its overall size, the scientists say the study involving normal, healthy children, is ultimately intended to help children with serious emotional and neurological difficulties.
For the past 15 years, a team of researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and the U.S. National Institutes of Health has been monitoring the brains of 307 children and teens. They have been using high-tech brain imaging known as M.R.I. to look at the brains of children between five and 11 years old.
While, monitoring the cortex or outer mantle of the brain development of children using MRI scans during the children’s adolescence right through into their later teens the researchers found that children whose IQs were over 121 reached maximum cortex thickness at 11 years’ of age, on the other hand other children reached the same point when they were 6. Intelligent children, whose IQs did not reach 121, reached maximum cortex thickness when they were 9. Researchers examined the scans to see how they connected with the children’s IQ.
Very intelligent youngsters had scores of 121-145 while high IQs were between 109-120 and average between 83-108.
During the course of the study, the children went through intelligence tests that measured their verbal and non-verbal reasoning, which is associated with an area of the brain known as the frontal cortex. Each child underwent an M.R.I. at least once, while others had two or more brain scans at least two years apart.
Scientists are unaware of the fact why all the children matured beyond maximum cortex thickness age, the cortex began to thin. They even do not know whether the factors that influence this are genetic, environmental-upbringing and simulation by the family or a combination of both. Shaw says why children have a thicker or thinner cortex initially is also not known.
Dr Philip Shaw, lead author of the research expects that the data collected on the brain structures of healthy and intelligent children will help scientists to find the precise key differences between the healthy brain and disordered brains. He also hopes that this will help to originate treatments for youngsters with serious mental disorders, including childhood onset schizophrenic disorder and less severe conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
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