It sounds logical: the more active your brain, the smarter you are. But this study shows that the brain doesn’t work that simply. Not busyness, but balance in brain activity turns out to be important for children’s intelligence. In the future, we might even be able to influence that brain balance.
Researchers studied 128 children and adolescents aged 6 to 19. They wanted to understand how two new measures of brain activity relate to IQ. They found a clear link between balance in the brain and higher intelligence levels. ‘In the future, doctors might intervene earlier when this balance is disrupted, for example in children with autism or ADHD’, says Gianina Cristian, PhD candidate at Radboudumc.
Measuring activity with a cap
For this study, the children took a short IQ test consisting of four parts: vocabulary, similarities, block design, and reasoning. At a later moment, their brain activity was measured using EEG. During this test, children wear a cap with sensors that pick up the brain’s electrical signals. These signals appear on the computer as waves, which researchers translate into different types of information. This allows them to study patterns of brain activity.
Driving a car with the radio on
The brain consists of different networks responsible for simple and more complex tasks. In each network, the researchers measured two new types of brain activity. The first measurement shows how well a brain network balances ‘go’ and ‘slow down’, similar to driving a car. ‘Too much gas and too little brake, and the car becomes hard to control. Too much brake and too little gas, and it barely moves. The brain works best somewhere in between’, Cristian explains.
The second measurement looks at the background noise in brain activity. You can compare this to a radio. A radio receives all sorts of signals at once, which together form a type of noise. This background noise influences how the brain functions. Certain signals, for example, may cause the brain to ‘go’ more often. For this brain measure too, the brain works best when things are roughly in balance.
Smarter through balance
The study’s main finding is that both brain measurements clearly relate to intelligence. In other words: balance in the brain is associated with a higher IQ score. This relationship also differs across the brain’s various networks. It is strongest in networks responsible for complex tasks such as planning. ‘By studying brain activity in typically developing children, this research creates a foundation for future studies on neurodevelopmental disorders’, says emeritus professor Gert Jan van der Wilt.
The researchers emphasize that this is an association study. More research is therefore needed to understand how this link with intelligence arises and whether we can influence it. The study was conducted in collaboration between Radboudumc, Amsterdam UMC (Hilgo Bruining), and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Klaus Linkenkaer-Hansen).
About the publication
This research was published in The Journal of Neuroscience: Critical Dynamics in the Association Cortex Predict Higher Intelligence in Typically Developing Children. Authors: Gianina Cristian, Cece C. Kooper, Arthur-Ervin Avramiea, Jennifer R. Ramautar, Jordache Ramjith, Shilpa Anand, Marsh Königs, Gert Jan van der Wilt, Hilgo Bruining, and Klaus Linkenkaer-Hansen. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1414-25.2026
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