Network attributes underlying intellectual giftedness in the developing brain

Abstract

Brain network is organized to maximize the efficiency of both segregated and integrated information processing that may be related to human intelligence. However, there have been surprisingly few studies that focus on the topological characteristics of brain network underlying extremely high intelligence that is intellectual giftedness, particularly in adolescents. Here, we examined the network topology in 25 adolescents with superior intelligence (SI-Adol), 25 adolescents with average intelligence (AI-Adol), and 27 young adults with AI (AI-Adult). We found that SI-Adol had network topological properties of high global efficiency as well as high clustering with a low wiring cost, relative to AI-Adol. However, contrary to the suggested role that brain hub regions play in general intelligence, the network efficiency of rich club connection matrix, which represents connections among brain hubs, was low in SIAdol in comparison to AI-Adol. Rather, a higher level of local connection density was observed in SI-Adol than in AI-Adol. The highly intelligent brain may not follow this efficient yet somewhat stereotypical process of information integration entirely. Taken together, our results suggest that a highly intelligent brain may communicate more extensively, while being less dependent on rich club communications during adolescence.Intelligence is known as the general cognitive capability to reason, plan, solve problem, appraise, and learn quickly from experience 1 . Moreover, intelligence is strongly associated with behavioral patterns and important life outcomes, including health and longevity 2 .Since the earlier research which investigated the correlation between brain size and intelligence 3 , considerable efforts have been made to identify the neural basis underlying inter-individual differences in intelligence 4-7 . In the early days of research, the alterations in the fronto-parietal gray matter regions as an indexing marker for intelligence have attracted much attention, due to their implicated role in information processing 8 . However, as a growing number of studies have examined white matter connections and network metrics, integrative roles of the brain in networking multiple cortical and subcortical regions have become an increasing interest in investigating intelligence 4 . Recent evidence indicated that inter-individual differences in intelligence may be attributed to the global efficiency and strength of white matter connectivity network across the brain regions [9][10][11] . Furthermore, the relationships between intellectual ability and functional efficiency of brain network were more pronounced in the frontal and parietal regions [12][13][14] . Interestingly, the fronto-parietal regions along with the subcortical structures including the thalamus, putamen, and hippocampus are considered as highly inter-connected brain hubs, also referred to as "rich clubs" 5 . Connections between these rich clubs play a key role in promoting efficient information flow in the brain network, despite the high cost of ...

Development of attentional networks in intellectually gifted children

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“…Such studies show intellectual giftedness adolescents have higher efficient connections between different brain structural networks than intellectually average adolescents. Intellectual giftedness also confers an advantage in the integration of diverse information from brain areas accurately and quickly (Ma et al, 2017;Solé-Casals et al, 2019). IGC have better efficiency of global information processing than age-matched peers.…”

“…IGC have better efficiency of global information processing than age-matched peers. It would be due to a particular pattern of brain networks and an extensive communication between some brain areas (Ma et al, 2017;Solé-Casals et al, ATTENTIONAL NETWORKS IN GIFTED CHILDREN ! 4 2019).…”

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