Is there a way to increase your intelligence, become smarter, and maintain mental fitness into old age? Learn more in this article.
Table of contents
1. The dilemma for science
For centuries, scientists, philosophers and all kinds of adventurers have been searching for a method to strengthen the cognitive abilities of the brain, to actively increase intelligence in order to become smarter and to maintain mental fitness into old age.
The scientific establishment , it must be said, is far from convinced that it is possible to permanently increase our intelligence , whether through brain training, drugs, electrical stimulation or anything else.
The crucial question at the beginning of the neuro-enhancement debate is: What does "getting smarter" mean? Many of the industry's claims, while not false, are rather banal: Of course, brain-training games "stimulate your cognitive functions" and "change your brain," because pretty much every mental activity does that.
And no one disputes that it's possible to learn new skills, like speaking Spanish or riding a bike. It's also known that taking Ritalin or Modafinil—drugs popular among many schoolchildren and students these days as "study drugs"—can temporarily boost your concentration.
It is also relatively easy to help your working memory , for example by practicing using memory tricks to learn long series of numbers by heart .
But these tricks are n't transferable to other tasks . Ask a memory whiz to solve a tricky puzzle, and they probably won't fare any better than the rest of us.
2. Is there a method to increase fluid intelligence?
The philosopher's stone would be to find a method to increase fluid intelligence . This is the ability to retain information in conscious memory and then manipulate it to solve complex problems or develop new ideas.
Fluid intelligence is what IQ tests attempt to measure. Until a few years ago, the scientific community was extremely pessimistic about whether fluid intelligence could be improved.
But in 2008, a paper by the two Bernese psychologists Susanne Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl was published that caught the attention of scientists and is still hotly debated today.
Jaeggi and Buschkuehl had test subjects practice a specific, extremely difficult mental task for several minutes a day for 19 days.
Result: the fluid intelligence of the test subjects increased by an average of 44 percent (measured with a scientifically recognized IQ test).
While other brain-training exercises are already known to only improve performance in the task being practiced and have no general impact on mental capacity, the Swiss psychologists' exercise - which, as mentioned, is extremely difficult - actually seems to increase IQ overall.
This is a very surprising result, as psychologists had previously considered IQ to be largely unchangeable. In fact, the study remains highly controversial to this day.
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3. Unlikely that it should not be possible
We don't want to get involved in the scientific debate, but it is very unlikely that it is completely impossible to modify fundamental properties of our brain in some way, be it through food, chemical substances, or some kind of brain training.
The brain is an organ that is subject to and functions according to chemical and physical laws. So why should traits like fluid intelligence be completely immune to physical and chemical influences?
Of course, our intelligence is strongly influenced by our genes , but so is our height , for example, and that can be significantly influenced by external factors such as the type of nutrition during the growth phase .
The same certainly applies to our most important organ, the brain. That's why BRAINEFFECT has developed a range of nutritional supplements specifically tailored to the brain's needs at different stages of life.
4. What is intelligence?
In science, the term intelligence usually refers to what we call academic or cognitive intelligence .
In their book on intelligence, authors Professor Resing and Drenth answer the question "What is intelligence?" with the following definition: "The totality of cognitive or intellectual abilities required to acquire knowledge and to use this knowledge to solve problems that have clearly defined goals and structures. "
Wikipedia states under this keyword: "Intelligence is a collective term in psychology for the cognitive performance of humans.
Since individual cognitive abilities can vary in strength and there is no agreement on how to determine and differentiate them, there is no universally agreed definition of intelligence ."
5. The intelligence quotient (IQ)
Intelligence and IQ are not the same thing ! The intelligence quotient (IQ) is a numerical value that measures a person's intelligence compared to other people.
IQ as a measure of intelligence is therefore a relative measure. We don't have a fixed IQ , like we have a fixed shoe or body size.
Your IQ simply tells you how intelligent you are compared to others . Compared to 50 Einsteins, you would have a very low IQ, but compared to 50 first-graders, you would have a much higher IQ. Your IQ is therefore a score you have achieved relative to a group of other people. The average of this group is defined as 100.
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6. Where is intelligence located in the brain?
Researchers have discovered intelligence in the human brain: However, intelligence is not determined by a single structure , nor by gray matter as a whole, but rather by communication between different brain regions. The better this communication functions, the higher the intelligence quotient (IQ).
Where are the areas of the brain that make us smart? A team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena has answered this question.
The scientists examined people with injuries in different brain regions and compared their IQ. It was assumed that injuries that significantly impaired IQ were located in the regions important for intelligence.
Amazingly, it was discovered for the first time that intelligence does not require the entire brain, but is also not localized in a single brain region.
Rather, a "remarkably well-defined, albeit widely branched" network of regions in the frontal and lateral lobes of the brain must work together to " generate " intelligence.
7. Communication is intelligence
Intelligence therefore appears to depend primarily on efficient communication between different brain regions , the researchers conclude. "Our analyses fit with a theory of intelligence called parieto-frontal integration theory," explains Ralph Adolphs of Caltech.
"Accordingly, general intelligence depends primarily on the ability to relate different mental abilities to one another."
More brain doesn't necessarily mean more intelligence . However, good connectivity and communication between certain brain convolutions does. The anatomical network of intelligence links centers in different brain lobes.
8. Conclusion
While science has not yet been able to prove that so-called fluid intelligence is modifiable, and it is certainly genetically determined to some extent, intelligence can clearly be increased in various areas through the right exercises and diligent study.
