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Intelligence Map Made From Brain Injury Data

Posted by Soulskill on from the he-got-punched-in-the-math dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this news out of the University of Illinois: "Scientists report that they have mapped the physical architecture of intelligence in the brain. Theirs is one of the largest and most comprehensive analyses so far of the brain structures vital to general intelligence and to specific aspects of intellectual functioning, such as verbal comprehension and working memory. Their study, published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology (abstract), is unique in that it enlisted an extraordinary pool of volunteer participants: 182 Vietnam veterans with highly localized brain damage from penetrating head injuries. ... The researchers took CT scans of the participants’ brains and administered an extensive battery of cognitive tests. They pooled the CT data to produce a collective map of the cortex, which they divided into more than 3,000 three-dimensional units called voxels. By analyzing multiple patients with damage to a particular voxel or cluster of voxels and comparing their cognitive abilities with those of patients in whom the same structures were intact, the researchers were able to identify brain regions essential to specific cognitive functions, and those structures that contribute significantly to intelligence."

9 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, Journal paywalls... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is one of those fine moments when I wish scientific journals posted online weren't pay-walled. Kinda kills the dissemination of knowledge to the masses when one has to pay $32 to view a single article once, and makes it economically infeasable for an individual to read and verify the information they hear from primary sources.

    1. Re:Oh, Journal paywalls... by Hatta · · Score: 4, Informative

      While journal access is costly, most researchers post PDF reprints of their papers on their lab website. Google Scholar is pretty good at finding them. Here is the PDF for this article. I expect this is not paywalled, but since I'm at an academic institution I can't be sure.

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  2. Voxel by proslack · · Score: 4, Informative

    A voxel is a 3D (volumetric) pixel.

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    Floating in the black seas of infinity without a paddle.
    1. Re:Voxel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't need some city slicker with a name like "proslack" telling me what a goddman Voxel is. I did two tours of duty in Command & Conquer.. I saw a lot in my time.

  3. Limited subject base by rgmoore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While this is undoubtedly an important study, their findings are going to have to be replicated somehow in a larger, more diverse set of subjects. They're looking at just 182 people and, while it's not mentioned explicitly in the article, it appears they're all men. We know from other studies that there are anatomical differences in men's brains compared to women's brains, and even between left handed and right handed men. It would be very interesting to see, for example, a FMRI study to see if the structures play the same role in all patients.

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    1. Re:Limited subject base by Hartree · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's interesting work, but I think Barbey would agree with you that it's just a beginning. Some of the same questions came up in the question and answer section of a talk by him I went to a couple weeks ago.

      He just recently got here to the U of Illinois and is the head of a new neuroscience laboratory dealing with decision making, executive function and reasoning.

      http://www.decisionneurosciencelab.org/

      They have some interesting ideas for looking at the role of self deception in how we reason that hopefully will lead to some quite interesting work.

  4. Re:What is the use of the right side of the brain by Hartree · · Score: 4, Informative

    That was another question that came up in the QA section of a talk by the lead researcher, Aron Barbey a couple weeks ago.

    Obviously, it's doing things that just weren't measured by these particular tests. You don't waste that much blood flow and energy use on "nothing". These tests were aimed at specific types of verbal and executive reasoning.

    Barbey also mentioned that the majority of the participants in the study were right handed, and they needed follow up research to deal with the questions of whether that effects the results of the study.

  5. Re:OK... by Bengie · · Score: 4, Funny

    Uh, I think so, but how do we get Minecraft players inside someone's head to fix their voxels?

  6. Re:Let me get this straight by kanweg · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think the study is full of holes

    Bert