Brain Anatomical Network and Intelligence

Abstract

Intuitively, higher intelligence might be assumed to correspond to more efficient information transfer in the brain, but no direct evidence has been reported from the perspective of brain networks. In this study, we performed extensive analyses to test the hypothesis that individual differences in intelligence are associated with brain structural organization, and in particular that higher scores on intelligence tests are related to greater global efficiency of the brain anatomical network. We constructed binary and weighted brain anatomical networks in each of 79 healthy young adults utilizing diffusion tensor tractography and calculated topological properties of the networks using a graph theoretical method. Based on their IQ test scores, all subjects were divided into general and high intelligence groups and significantly higher global efficiencies were found in the networks of the latter group. Moreover, we showed significant correlations between IQ scores and network properties across all subjects while controlling for age and gender. Specifically, higher intelligence scores corresponded to a shorter characteristic path length and a higher global efficiency of the networks, indicating a more efficient parallel information transfer in the brain. The results were consistently observed not only in the binary but also in the weighted networks, which together provide convergent evidence for our hypothesis. Our findings suggest that the efficiency of brain structural organization may be an important biological basis for intelligence.

DiffusionKit: A light one-stop solution for diffusion MRI data analysis

“…13 shows the connectivity network derived from the 90 ROIs weighted by the number of fibers (indicated by the color bars), which demonstrated strong similarity to the results of Li et al (see Fig. 2 in (Li et al, 2009)), which used an averaged binarized network. The details and source script concerning how to construct the network are described in the Tutorial section on the website of DiffusionKit.…”

The functional connectome of cognitive reserve

“…This is closely related to the concept of a more efficient use of the brain's resources, one of the hallmarks of CR [Stern, 2002]. Previous studies have found similar associations in structural [Li et al, 2009] and functional [van den Heuvel et al, 2009] brain networks with IQ, a proxy of CR. Higher network efficiency would also explain activation of higher cognitive resources in challenging task conditions [Zihl et al, 2014].…”

Organizational topology of brain and its relationship to ADHD in adolescents with d‐transposition of the great arteries

“…Thus, the increased modularity underlying poorer neurocognitive performance may indicate a deficit in long‐range connectivity between subnetworks, as efficient communication between subnetworks is necessary for complex cognitive tasks (Li et al. 2009). By contrast, the altered transitivity associated with worse ADHD may be more associated with short‐range and local connectivity.…”