For decades scientists have tried, mostly in vain, to explain where intelligence resides in our brains. The answer, a new study suggests, is everywhere.
After analysing the brain as an incredibly dense network of interconnected points, a team of Dutch scientists has found that the most efficiently wired brains tend to belong to the most intelligent people.
Now that scientists are finally getting a grip on what features of the brain underlie intelligence, it may be possible to manipulate them, says van den Heuvel. "We're looking at communication between brain regions, so why shouldn't we be able to influence that?"
And improving this efficiency with drugs offers a tantalising – though still unproven – means of boosting intelligence, say researchers.
The concept of a networked brain isn't so different from the transportation grids used by cars and planes, says Martijn van den Heuvel, a neuroscientist at Utrecht University Medical Center who led the new study.
"If you're flying from New York to Amsterdam, you can do it in a direct flight. It's much more effective than going from New York, then to Washington, and then to Amsterdam. It's exactly the same idea in the brain," he says.
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