Connecting intelligence dots

Intelligence and creativity are wonderful qualities to find in another person.

These traits tend to shine through in conversation on any number of topics and are not necessarily tied to educational achievement.

So what is behind general intelligence and creativity?

Observation has long suggested intelligence involves a combination of knowledge and experience. Many well-known creative thinkers talk about this interplay and the importance of experience to connect the dots between different pieces of knowledge.

Several studies in brain activity seem to corroborate this theory. In a 2010 study from the California Institute of Technology, IQ and brain imaging data from more than 200 patients with brain injuries was examined to produce a map of brain regions involved in intelligence.

Not surprisingly, researchers found general intelligence was not tied to one particular part of the brain, but was determined by a network of regions across both sides of the brain.

This finding is consistent with results of intelligence testing. People tend to have similar scores on many different kinds of tests either scoring generally high or low across the board.

This doesn’t mean intelligence is tied strictly to general whole brain functioning. Rather, it bears out a theory called parieto-frontal integration theory, which says general intelligence depends on the brain’s ability to integrate several different kinds of processing such as working memory.

So our brains need to have high-functioning areas as well as the ability for those areas to communicate well with one another.

Alongside these physical characteristics, the intelligent or creative thinker needs to have a good variety of knowledge and experiences from which to make these connections.

Here is where education and life experiences come in handy. The more curious we are to learn about a broad array of subjects, the more raw material we have at our disposal and the more varied our building blocks for creative thought.

That’s another great reason to keep learning new things, read a lot, and get out of the house and experience the world around us.

Although many creative people will tell you that nothing is truly new, we do have the potential for creative contributions because of our unique combination of knowledge and experience.

 

 

 

 

 

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.