This is one of those items that stroke rehab researchers should be studying to see how white matter can be more efficiently map new pathways to replace the damaged ones. They should be correllating damaged areas with the need to connect to still functioning areas.
Martijn van den Heuvel, a neuroscientist at Utrecht University Medical Center who led the new study, explained that the concept of a networked brain is similar to a transportation grid, with the brain using its network to send information from one region to another
In their study, the scientists scanned the brains of 19 subjects at rest using functional Brain connectivity reflects how many steps are required to send information between different regions of the brain.
When comparing the connectivity networks, the researchers found a link between connectivity efficiency and the subject's IQ, with connectivity explaining about 30% of the difference between subjects. However, the researchers did not find a link between the total number of connections in the brain and IQ. "We show that more intelligent people don't have more connections, but they have more efficiently placed connections," van den Heuvel said.
In the future, the scientists hope to investigate the possibilities of manipulating the brain's connectivity efficiency in order to create more efficient brain networks, and possibly boost IQ. Previous research has found a genetic component to white matter in the brain, which is also related to intelligence. By understanding how these genes work, scientists may be able to figure out how to manipulate the genes, leading to improved intelligence.
More information: Journal of Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1442-09.2009).
Manipulating the connectivity could be directly related to stroke rehab.
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