Peeping Toms of Neuroscience: No More Secrets

We are fortunate these days, to have available the expertise of legions of neuroscientists, all for the price of a mouse click. Eide Neurolearning Blog reports on the obvious neuro-image differences in brain activity between the pro golfer and the beginning golfer.
This fMRI image taken from ScienceDaily, illustrates sex or gender differences in the amount of gray and white matter used for general intelligence.
While there are essentially no disparities in general intelligence between the sexes, a UC Irvine study has found significant differences in brain areas where males and females manifest their intelligence.

The study shows women having more white matter and men more gray matter related to intellectual skill, revealing that no single neuroanatomical structure determines general intelligence and that different types of brain designs are capable of producing equivalent intellectual performance.

“These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior,” said Richard Haier, professor of psychology in the Department of Pediatrics and longtime human intelligence researcher, who led the study with colleagues at UCI and the University of New Mexico. “In addition, by pinpointing these gender-based intelligence areas, the study has the potential to aid research on dementia and other cognitive-impairment diseases in the brain.”

Functional MRI, or fMRI, is a powerful imaging technology that looks inside the brain while it works. Not only will it tell you what part of the brain is working at any given time, it will also give you an idea of how hard that part of the brain is working.

This excellent article discusses the use of fMRI in intelligence studies, and has some incredible graphic images. The thoughtful sensitivity of the authors when discussing societal implications of the research, and necessary ethical concerns of researchers, is encouraging. And if that masterful review only served to whet your appetite for more, consult these neural correlates of reasoning.

The human brain sits exposed. If the person lies, his brain will show a different picture than if he tells the truth. If the person has to work harder to solve a problem than his sister did, his brain image will give him away. It is getting harder to hide from the peeping Toms of neuroscience.