ITAB e Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e Bioimmagini, Università G. D'Annunzio, Chieti, Italy.
Behav Brain Res. 2009 Dec 28;205(2):468-74. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.07.032. Epub 2009 Aug 7.
More intelligent persons (high IQ) typically present a higher cortical activity during tasks requiring the encoding of visuo-spatial information, namely higher alpha (about 10 Hz) event-related desynchronization (ERD; Doppelmayr et al., 2005). The opposite is true ("neural efficiency") during the retrieval of the encoded information, as revealed by both lower alpha ERD and/or lower theta (about 5 Hz) event-related synchronization (ERS; Grabner et al., 2004). To reconcile these contrasting results, here we evaluated the working hypothesis that more intelligent male subjects are characterized by a high cortical activity during the encoding phase. This deep encoding would explain the relatively low cortical activity for the retrieval of the encoded information. To test this hypothesis, electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded in 22 healthy young male volunteers during visuo-spatial information processing (encoding) and short-term retrieval of the encoded information. Cortical activity was indexed by theta ERS and alpha ERD. It was found that the higher the subjects' total IQ, the stronger the frontal theta ERS during the encoding task. Furthermore, the higher the subjects' total IQ, the lower the frontal high-frequency alpha ERD (about 10-12 Hz) during the retrieval task. This was not true for parietal counterpart of these EEG rhythms. These results reconcile previous contrasting evidence confirming that more intelligent persons do not ever show event-related cortical responses compatible with "neural efficiency" hypothesis. Rather, their cortical activity would depend on flexible and task-adapting features of frontal activation.
更聪明的人（高智商）在需要编码视空间信息的任务中通常表现出更高的皮质活动，即更高的阿尔法（约 10 赫兹）事件相关去同步（ERD；Doppelmayr 等人，2005 年）。相反，在编码信息的检索过程中，情况则相反（“神经效率”），这一点可以通过较低的阿尔法 ERD 和/或较低的 theta（约 5 赫兹）事件相关同步（ERS；Grabner 等人，2004 年）得到证实。为了调和这些相互矛盾的结果，我们在这里评估了一个工作假设，即更聪明的男性受试者在编码阶段表现出较高的皮质活动。这种深度编码可以解释相对较低的皮质活动，以检索编码信息。为了检验这一假设，我们在 22 名健康年轻男性志愿者进行视空间信息处理（编码）和编码信息的短期检索期间记录了脑电图（EEG）数据。皮质活动由 theta ERS 和 alpha ERD 来表示。结果发现，受试者的总智商越高，编码任务中额叶 theta ERS 越强。此外，受试者的总智商越高，检索任务中额叶高频 alpha ERD（约 10-12 赫兹）越低。这对于这些 EEG 节律的顶叶对应物来说并不正确。这些结果调和了先前相互矛盾的证据，证实了更聪明的人并不总是表现出与“神经效率”假说一致的事件相关皮质反应。相反，他们的皮质活动将取决于额叶激活的灵活和适应任务的特征。
