Intelligence can change over the life course

Intelligence quotient of children varies over the life course

10/21/2011

So far, intelligence has been a factor that, unlike education, has changed little or nothing over the years. But researchers from University College London now report in the current issue of the journal „Nature“, that the intelligence quotient (IQ) can change significantly during the teenage years - for the positive as well as the negative.

Her research has shown that the intelligence of children does not remain constant over the years, but can develop differently until adolescence, said study author Cathy Price. The „Tendency to judge children relatively early in life and to determine their educational path“, could therefore be a fundamentally wrong approach, Price continued.

To notice significant jumps of the IQ
The British researchers at the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging at the University College of London had studied the intelligence of 33 adolescents between the ages of twelve and 16 and repeated this study after four years. In addition to a common intelligence test, brain examinations were also performed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The researchers around Cathy Price noticed that the children sometimes had significant jumps in the IQ. Some seem to have significantly increased their IQ, but other previously powerful children lost potential, the researchers said. The previous assumption that the IQ does not change later in life is refuted by the current results. In the intelligence tests, the researchers analyzed general knowledge, speech abilities and memory as well as skills such as capturing missing picture elements or solving puzzles.

IQ develops parallel to the gray matter of the brain
In the first study, the intelligence quotients of the 33 study participants were between 77 and 135, in the second study, the subjects reached values ​​between 87 and 143, according to the researchers. In particular, some adolescents have improved their score by up to 20 points in the second test, while others have seen a similar decline in the IQ, Cathy Price and colleagues write. Also with regard to the individual areas tested, the second test revealed some significant deviations compared to the first investigation. The MRI images showed that the gray matter, which consists mainly of nerve cells, has changed parallel to the development of IQ, the researchers report. For example, an increase in verbal IQ was accompanied by an increase in the density of gray matter in the left motor cerebral cortex. This area is activated when speaking, so the explanation of the British scientists. The researchers noted an increase in non-verbal IQ (puzzle and image-searching abilities), an increase in the density of gray matter in parallel in the anterior cerebellum, according to Cathy Price and colleagues. Here, too, there is a logical connection, since the brain region is associated with movements of the hand and spatial thinking.

The brain is malleable for life
The reason why the intelligence quotient of some subjects has changed later in life but remained constant in others has not been clear to date. It is possible, for example, that some children are early or late developers, explained Cathy Price. But training and promotion of skills could also play a role. The previous assumption that the intelligence does not change much in life, but must be discarded in view of the current results, so the conclusion of the experts. Rather, there is reason to believe that the brain remains malleable over the life course and can adapt to new challenges, the British scientists said. (Fp)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann