Neuroscience and intelligence concerns the various neurological factors that may be responsible for the variation of intelligence within a species or between different species. Much of the work in this field is concerned with the variation in human intelligence, but other intelligent species such as the non-human primates, cetaceans and rodents are also of interest. The basic mechanisms by which the brain produces complex phenomena such as consciousness and intelligence are still poorly understood.
The research into the neuroscience of intelligence has involved indirect approaches, such as searching for correlations between psychometric test scores and variables associated with the anatomy and physiology of the brain. Historically, research was conducted on non-human animals or on postmortem brains as well as on skulls (Craniometry). More recent studies have involved non-invasive techniques such as MRI scans as they can be conducted on living subjects. MRI scans can be used to measure the size of various structures within the brain, or they can be used to detect areas of the brain that are active when subjects perform certain mental tasks.
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Famous quotes containing the word intelligence:
“All the old supports going, gone, this man reaches out a hand to steady himself on a ledge of rough brick that is warm in the sun: his hand feeds him messages of solidity, but his mind messages of destruction, for this breathing substance, made of earth, will be a dance of atoms, he knows it, his intelligence tells him so: there will soon be war, he is in the middle of war, where he stands will be a waste, mounds of rubble, and this solid earthy substance will be a film of dust on ruins.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)