In 1836, Frederick Tiedmann wrote that there exists

“an indisputable connection between the size of the brain and the mental energy displayed by the individual man.”
(Hamilton JA 1935. The association between brain size and maze ability in the white rat. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.)

Brain volumes can be measured accurately with MRI, and using MRI, research has shown that intelligence and brain volume are meaningfully related. The correlation is higher in adult women. Another study in elderly men showed that fluid intelligence, premorbid intelligence, and visuospatial memory are affected, but not verbal memory and verbal fluency.

It’s OK to be big-headed after all…

Apparently, in neurobiology, honeybees are a common model system for analysing underlying neural mechanisms. Furthermore, by investigating the bee brain’s anatomy, correlations between anatomy and function can be studied. MRI allows access to the brain structure without chopping the bee’s head up.

See a bee-brain at the Journal of Insect Science. The in-plane resolution of images reported is about 16μm x 16μm.

It may be common knowledge that similar pleasure centres in the brain light up when eating chocolate or having sex. But good ol’ MRI can tell us much more.

Continue Reading »

A sample of pathological liars have more white matter than normal or antisocial controls, according to an MRI study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Continue Reading »

Get 15 nuns to relive their most religious/spiritual/mystical experience ( “RSMEs”), and use fMRI to see which parts of their brains get involved. Continue Reading »