Intelligence…What Intelligence?
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Intelligence is something quite unique to us humans, our ability to think, plan, reason, problem solve, communicate and learn, to name a few is what sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. But the way in which the billions of neurones in our brains activate and control these abilities is still largely a mystery and neuroscientists have been trying to solve this mystery to reveal what intelligence is and how it actually happens.
Whilst neuroscientists are trying to reveal how intelligence happens, the majority of the population are craving such insight and are keen to know how to improve someone’s intelligence. For scientists, this is a complicated topic. From studies that have been conducted, we know a large component that contributes to one’s intelligence is their genetic make up, however there is an equally large environmental component that also contributes to their overall intelligence. This means, that there are events in people’s lives that are affecting how they develop the use of these regions of the brain which determine intelligence. This implies that changing people’s experiences will ultimately affect their intelligence, however actually finding out what it is about people’s experiences that shapes the way their brain develops is still elusive to this day.
