Brain: Size Does Matter
Medical News Today
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Brain size matters for intellectual ability and bigger is better, McMaster University researchers have found.
The study, led by neuroscientist Sandra Witelson, a professor in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, and published in the December issue of the journal Brain, has provided some of the clearest evidence on the underlying basis of differences in intelligence.
The study involved testing of intelligence in 100 neurologically normal, terminally ill volunteers, who agreed that their brains be measured after death. It found bigger is better, but there are differences between women and men.
In women, verbal intelligence was clearly correlated with brain size, accounting for 36 percent of the verbal IQ score. In men, this was true for right-handers only, indicating that brain asymmetry is a factor in men. Spatial intelligence was also correlated with brain size in women, but less strongly. In men, spatial ability was not related to overall brain size.
Dec 25, 2005
Medical News Today_______________
Brain size matters for intellectual ability and bigger is better, McMaster University researchers have found.
The study, led by neuroscientist Sandra Witelson, a professor in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, and published in the December issue of the journal Brain, has provided some of the clearest evidence on the underlying basis of differences in intelligence.
The study involved testing of intelligence in 100 neurologically normal, terminally ill volunteers, who agreed that their brains be measured after death. It found bigger is better, but there are differences between women and men.
In women, verbal intelligence was clearly correlated with brain size, accounting for 36 percent of the verbal IQ score. In men, this was true for right-handers only, indicating that brain asymmetry is a factor in men. Spatial intelligence was also correlated with brain size in women, but less strongly. In men, spatial ability was not related to overall brain size.
Dec 25, 2005
