Now here’s an interesting article linking the thickness of a child’s cerebral cortex to intelligence:
The scans showed that children with the highest IQs began with a relatively thin cortex — the folded outer layer of the brain that is involved in complex thinking — which rapidly grew thicker before reaching a peak and then rapidly becoming thinner, said Philip Shaw, the lead investigator. Children of average intelligence had a thicker cortex around age 6, but by around 13 it was thinner than in children of superior intelligence.
The study is the most definitive finding to date of a relationship between the physical characteristics of the brain and intelligence. Such a relationship has long been something of a holy grail for scientists.
Interesting stuff, and something that reinforces the idea of the importance of an early (and solid) education.