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                 Motion Filtering Ability Correlated to High IQ

   by VOA News

   New research indicates there is a strong link between the brain's
   ability to ignore useless information and intelligence.
   [1]Researchers at the University of Rochester in New York state say
   they can predict a person's intelligence quotient, or IQ, using some
   simple visual tests.
   Test subjects were asked to watch brief video clips of black and white
   bars moving across a computer screen within three different sized
   circles. They were asked to identify in which direction the bars
   drifted.
   The exercise measures the brain's unconscious ability to filter out
   visually distracting background motions. The study, researchers said,
   shows that individuals whose brains are better at automatically
   suppressing background motion perform better on standard measures of
   intelligence such as a written IQ test, which subjects were also given.
   According to the study, subjects with higher IQ scores were able to
   perceive the direction of movement when observing the smallest image.
   The findings support previous research that people with higher IQs are
   able to make perceptual judgments more quickly and have faster
   reflexes.
   However, the higher a person's IQ, the slower they were at detecting
   movement when presented with the larger images.
   "From previous research, we expected that all participants would be
   worse at detecting the movement of large images, but high IQ
   individuals were much, much worse," says Michael Melnick, a doctoral
   candidate in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of
   Rochester.
   The key discovery, researchers said, is how closely this natural
   filtering ability is linked to a person's IQ score.
   Researchers say there was a 64 percent correlation between motion or
   distraction suppression and IQ scores. Other research exploring the
   relationship between intelligence and color discrimination, sensitivity
   to pitch and reaction times only have shown a 20 to 40 percent
   correlation, scientists said.
   "In our first experiment, the effect for motion was so strong," said
   Duje Tadin, a senior author on the study and an assistant professor of
   brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. "I really
   thought this was a fluke."
   The test represents the first non-verbal and culturally unbiased way to
   assess IQ, researchers said.
   "Because intelligence is such a broad construct, you can't really track
   it back to one part of the brain," said Tadin. "But since this task is
   so simple and so closely linked to IQ, it may give us clues about what
   makes a brain more efficient, and, consequently, more intelligent."
   According to the study, the relationship between IQ and motion
   suppression points to the fundamental cognitive processes that underlie
   intelligence. The brain's ability to filter important information from
   the bombardment of sensory information is an indication of the brain's
   efficiency and therefore intelligence.
   "Rapid processing is of little utility unless it is restricted to the
   most relevant information," the authors conclude.
   "We know from prior research which parts of the brain are involved in
   visual suppression of background motion. This new link to intelligence
   provides a good target for looking at what is different about the
   neural processing, what's different about the neurochemistry, what's
   different about the neurotransmitters of people with different IQs,"
   says Tadin.
   The unexpected link between IQ and motion filtering was reported online
   in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 23.
   Here's a sample of the kind of test given:

   IFRAME: [2]http://www.youtube.com/embed/qxt2Uo_GuXI
     __________________________________________________________________

   [3]http://www.voanews.com/content/motion-filtering-provides-strong-link
   e-to-iq/1667848.html

References

   1. http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=6422
   2. http://www.youtube.com/embed/qxt2Uo_GuXI
   3. http://www.voanews.com/content/motion-filtering-provides-strong-linke-to-iq/1667848.html