A chronometric model of the relationship between frontal midline theta functional connectivity and human intelligence

Abstract

Individual differences in cognitive control have been suggested to act as a domain-general bottleneck constraining performance in a variety of cognitive ability measures including but not limited to fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and processing speed. However, due to psychometric problems associated with the measurement of individual differences in cognitive control, it has been challenging to empirically test the assumption that individual differences in cognitive control underlie individual differences in cognitive abilities. In the present study, we addressed these issues by analyzing the chronometry of intelligence-related differences in midfrontal global theta connectivity, which has been shown to reflect cognitive control functions. We demonstrate in a sample of 98 adults, who completed a cognitive control task while their EEG was recorded, that individual differences in mid-frontal global theta connectivity during stages of higher-order information-processing explained 65 percent of the variance in fluid intelligence. In comparison, task-evoked theta connectivity during earlier stages of information processing was not related to fluid intelligence. These results suggest that more intelligent individuals benefit from an adaptive modulation of theta-band synchronization during the time-course of information processing. Moreover, they emphasize the role of interregional goal-directed informationprocessing for cognitive control processes in human intelligence and support theoretical accounts of intelligence which propose that individual differences in cognitive control processes give rise to individual differences in cognitive abilities.

Does process overlap theory replace the issues of general intelligence with the issues of attentional control?

“…In line with these ERP results, a power-spectrum analysis of EEG signals showed that phase-synchronized activity in the theta band—that is, activity associated with the facilitation of interregional goal-directed information processing—was strongly related to fluid intelligence during the P3 time window (Schubert, Hagemann, Löffler, Rummel, & Arnau, 2019). Furthermore, neuroimaging results showed that a greater integrity of white matter projections positively affected greater functional connectivity within and between brain regions, resulting in advantages in processing speed and working-memory capacity that translate into advantages in fluid intelligence (Ferrer et al, 2013; Fuhrmann, Simpson-Kent, Bathelt, the CALM Team, & Kievit, 2019; Kievit et al, 2016; Wendelken et al, 2017).…”

The Electrophysiological Signature of Mind Wandering

“…The experiment started immediately after participants completed an intelligence test (data reported in Schubert et al, 2019b) and after the preparation of a 32 electrode EEG montage.…”

Neurocognitive Psychometrics of Intelligence: How Measurement Advancements Unveiled the Role of Mental Speed in Intelligence Differences

“…Second, neural correlates of attentional control can be recorded to dissociate attention-related neurocognitive processes from other neurocognitive processes across a wide set of different cognitive-control tasks. In fact, first results suggest that more intelligent individuals benefit from more efficient interregional goal-directed information processing, as indicated by an adaptive modulation of synchronized brain rhythms associated with attention (Schubert, Hagemann, Löffler, Rummel, & Arnau, 2019). This again supports the idea that individual differences in attentional-control processes contribute to individual differences in intelligence.…”