Is bigger better when it comes to brains? For more than 200 years, scientists have looked for an association between brain size and intelligence.
A new study, the largest of its kind, has clarified the connection using MRI-derived information about brain size along with cognitive performance test results and educational-attainment measures obtained from more than 13,600 people.
Researchers led by Gideon Nave of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Philipp Koellinger of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam found that, as previous studies have suggested, a positive relationship does exist between brain volume and performance on cognitive tests.
But employers shouldn’t be measuring the heads of job candidates just yet: Size accounted for only about 2 percent of the variation in smarts, the study found.
