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A collaborative study led by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) using MRI. This study stems from the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development, for which the MNI was the data coordinating centre.  The database contains MRI scans and other data on the structure and function of the developing brains.  More than 500 children and adolescents from newborns to 18-year-olds had brain scans multiple times over a period of years as well as intelligence, neuropsychological, verbal, non-verbal and behavioural tests.

Previous studies have shown that intelligence and cognitive ability are correlated with regional brain structure and function. The association between regional cortical thickness and intelligence has been little studied and most previous studies of normal children had a relatively small sample. So with improvements in MRI-based quantification of cortical thickness and a much larger sample, researchers aimed to examine this relationship and to further characterize and identify brain areas where cortical thickness was associated with cognitive performance.

“A principal finding of this study is that it supports a distributed model of intelligence where multiple areas of the brain are involved with cognitive ability difference instead of the view that there is just one centre or structure important for intelligence differences in the brain,” says Dr. Sherif Karama, psychiatrist at the MNI and co-investigator in the study. “Previous studies have shown a link between intelligence differences and individual brain structure or function. This is the first time that a correlation between a general cognitive ability factor and essentially most, if not all, cortical association areas is demonstrated in the same study.”

A deeper insight into normal cognitive functioning and abilities is an first and foremost step in the understanding of cognitive decline observed in the elderly as well as in those with various pathologies ranging from multiple sclerosis to schizophrenia, depression and mental retardation.  Such an understanding may eventually lead to interventions that may be able to prevent or alleviate the decline or complications in cognitive function.


Source: MNI