Efficiency of functional brain networks and intellectual performance.

Full Abstract

Our brain is a complex network in which information is continuously processed and transported between spatially distributed but functionally linked regions. Recent studies have shown that the functional connections of the brain network are organized in a highly efficient small-world manner, indicating a high level of local neighborhood clustering, together with the existence of more long-distance connections that ensure a high level of global communication efficiency within the overall network. Such an efficient network architecture of our functional brain raises the question of a possible association between how efficiently the regions of our brain are functionally connected and our level of intelligence. Examining the overall organization of the brain network using graph analysis, we show a strong negative association between the normalized characteristic path length lambda of the resting-state brain network and intelligence quotient (IQ). This suggests that human intellectual performance is likely to be related to how efficiently our brain integrates information between multiple brain regions. Most pronounced effects between normalized path length and IQ were found in frontal and parietal regions. Our findings indicate a strong positive association between the global efficiency of functional brain networks and intellectual performance.

Author information

Author/s: van den Heuvel, Martijn P (MP); Stam, Cornelis J (CJ); Kahn, René S (RS); Hulshoff Pol, Hilleke E (HE);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands. m.p.vandenheuvel(-atsign-)umcutrecht.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jun; vol 29 (issue 23) : pp 7619-24

Dates: Created 2009/06/11; Completed 2009/06/29;

PMID: 19515930, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/29/2009, IMS Date: 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.

See 100+ related articles.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.