What goes through your mind when you think of someone smart? At first glance, you might have thought of qualities like quick thinking, strong problemsolving skills, and adaptability to adversity.
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Contrary to popular belief, however, a study published May 23 in the journal Nature Communications shows that intelligent people take longer to answer complex questions.
Smart people think more
The discovery was made in the laboratories of the Berlin Health Institute and the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin in collaboration with a Barcelona team member from the Pompeu Fabra University.
To conduct the study, a learning algorithm was developed and used to build personalized brain network models for 650 Project Human Connectome participants. The study uncovered interesting patterns in decisionmaking.
Participants were shown a series of patterns and asked to identify the rules behind them. In the test, the IQ of all people was measured using conventional texts.
The researchers found that those with higher intelligence scores could perform simple tasks quickly. However, when tasks get more complicated, it takes longer to solve complex problems compared to people with lower IQ scores.
Hasty decisions are not a good sign.
In their results, the researchers found that brains with less synchrony between different regions tended to make hasty decisions without even waiting for the higher brain regions to process the information needed to solve the problem.
Brain simulations took longer to solve complicated problems for people with higher intelligence.
That is, as the tests became more difficult, people with greater synaptic synchrony let the necessary processing take place rather than rushing.
Finally, the study proved that the frontal lobe neural circuits of the most synchronized brains are responsible for avoiding hasty decisions.