The neural systems supporting human intelligence, as measured by lesion analysis, task activation, and resting state connectivity

Operskalski, Joachim Thomas

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Description

Title

The neural systems supporting human intelligence, as measured by lesion analysis, task activation, and resting state connectivity

Author(s)

Operskalski, Joachim Thomas

Issue Date

2019-11-25

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Barbey, Aron K

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Barbey, Aron K

Committee Member(s)

• Cohen, Neal J
• Duff, Melissa C
• Huesmann, Graham R

Department of Study

Neuroscience Program

Discipline

Neuroscience

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Human Intelligence, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Functional Connectivity, Brain Lesion, Causal Reasoning

Abstract

The set structure of human cognitive abilities and their organization in the brain remains as controversial today as it was when the positive manifold between diverse cognitive tests was first explained as being driven by a single capacity for processing information. Alternative explanatory accounts of human intelligence can interpret the same experimental data in support of their competing claims because they do not make testable predictions. Far from being the reductive caricature of itself that some have parodied, cognitive neuroscience is one subfield of psychology (among others) whose methods lend themselves to the generation of testable predictions about how brain structure and function should relate to psychological test performance if different explanatory frameworks were true. This dissertation will explain three experiments on mapping tests of intelligence in the brain: first, a test of analogical reasoning using task-related functional MRI, followed by a test of emotional intelligence using analysis of focal penetrating brain lesions, followed by a test of visuospatial matrix reasoning, or fluid intelligence, using resting state functional MRI. Finally, a chapter on the literature and theoretical considerations about mapping causal reasoning in the brain will close the current discussion.

Graduation Semester

2019-12

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106299

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2019 Joachim Operskalski

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