Key to human intelligence lies in how brain networks work together
7 days ago
- #intelligence
- #brain-networks
- #neuroscience
- Modern neuroscience views the brain as specialized systems, with functions like attention, perception, memory, and language mapped to distinct networks.
- Researchers at the University of Notre Dame studied how the brain's integrated system gives rise to intelligence, addressing the gap in understanding unified cognition.
- General intelligence is a pattern of correlated diverse abilities, reflecting how efficiently brain networks are organized and work together.
- The Network Neuroscience Theory posits that intelligence is a property of the brain as a whole, not localized to a single network or function.
- Four key predictions of the theory were supported: distributed processing, integration and long-range communication, regulatory control, and balance between local specialization and global integration.
- Intelligence is unified due to system-wide coordination, not a single general-purpose processor, with individual differences linked to system-level properties.
- The study's findings have implications for understanding intelligence development, aging, brain injury, and artificial intelligence design.
- Human intelligence's flexibility stems from the brain's unique organization, suggesting AI may need similar system-level coordination for general intelligence.