Distributed brain sites for the g-factor of intelligence

The general factor of intelligence ( g) results from the empirical fact that almost all cognitive tests are positively correlated with one another. Individual tests can be classified according to the degree to which they involve g. Here, regional brain volumes associated with g are investigated by m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2006-07, Vol.31 (3), p.1359-1365
Main Authors: Colom, Roberto, Jung, Rex E., Haier, Richard J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Age
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Brain
Brain - anatomy & histology
Cerebral Cortex - anatomy & histology
Cognitive ability
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Female
g-factor
General intelligence
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Intelligence - physiology
Intelligence tests
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Male
Mathematical Computing
Middle Aged
Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data
Statistical analysis
Statistical methods
Statistics as Topic
Studies
Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
Wechsler Scales - statistics & numerical data
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Summary:The general factor of intelligence ( g) results from the empirical fact that almost all cognitive tests are positively correlated with one another. Individual tests can be classified according to the degree to which they involve g. Here, regional brain volumes associated with g are investigated by means of structural magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry. First, individual differences in the amount of regional gray matter volumes across the entire brain were correlated with eight cognitive tests showing distinguishable g-involvement. Results show that increasing g-involvement of individual tests was associated with increased gray matter volume throughout the brain. Second, it is shown that two prototypical measures of verbal and non-verbal g (i.e., vocabulary and block design) correlate with the amount of regional gray matter across frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, suggesting that the general factor of intelligence relates to areas distributed across the brain as opposed to the view that g derives exclusively from the frontal lobes.
ISSN:1053-8119
1095-9572
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.01.006