- Change theme
MRI Smart Test
MRI scans can accurately measure human intelligence by quantifying the brain’s dynamic functions and how its different parts interact with each othe
18:15 19 July 2016
Scientists say MRI scans (and not IQ tests) can accurately discern how intelligent a person is.
Professor Jianfeng Feng of the University of Warwick, who led the research, said: 'Human intelligence is a widely and hotly debated topic and only recently have advanced brain imaging techniques, such as those used in our current study, given us the opportunity to gain sufficient insights to resolve this and inform developments in artificial intelligence, as well as help establish the basis for understanding and diagnosis of debilitating human mental disorders such as schizophrenia and depression,'
Professor Jianfeng has been working to quantify the brain’s dynamic functions with a team in China. Together, they also work on identifying how different parts of the brain interact with each other at different times to discover how intellect works.
The research involved using resting-state MRI scans to analyse thousands of people’s brain around the world. It found that the areas of the brain which are associated with developing and learning showed high levels of variability.
Study leader Dr Adrian Owen, a British neuroscientists based at Western University in Canada, said: 'We expected a few hundred responses, but thousands and thousands of people took part, including people of all ages, cultures and creeds and from every corner of the world,' he said.
'When you take 100,000 people and tested their brain function, we couldn't find any evidence for a single uniform concept of intelligence.
'The best we could manage is get it down to three elements that contribute to intelligence. But they are completely different factors, unrelated to one another, and you could be brilliant at one and awful at another.