title: The smarter, the stronger: intelligence level correlates with brain resilience to systematic insults.
abstract: Neuroimaging evidences posit human intelligence as tightly coupled with several structural and functional brain properties, also suggesting its potential protective role against aging and neurodegenerative conditions. However, whether higher order cognition might in fact lead to a more resilient brain has not been quantitatively demonstrated yet. Here we document a relationship between individual intelligence quotient (IQ) and brain resilience to targeted and random attacks, as measured through resting-state fMRI graph-theoretical analysis in 102 healthy individuals. In this modeling context, enhanced brain robustness to targeted attacks (TA) in individuals with higher IQ is supported by an increased distributed processing capacity despite the systematic loss of the most important node(s) of the system. Moreover, brain resilience in individuals with higher IQ is supported by a set of neocortical regions mainly belonging to language and memory processing network(s), whereas regions related to emotional processing are mostly responsible for lower IQ individuals. Results suggest intelligence level among the predictors of post-lesional or neurodegenerative recovery, also promoting the evolutionary role of higher order cognition, and simultaneously suggesting a new framework for brain stimulation interventions aimed at counteract brain deterioration over time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab, University of Siena, Italy; Berenson-Allen Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: esantarn@bidmc.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Emiliano
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Santarnecchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rossi
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological
keywords: Brain connectivity; Cognitive reserve; Functional connectivity; Graph theory; Intelligence; Resting state; Robustness; fMRI