Neural alignment of knowledge structures relates to human intelligence
Tenderra, R. M.; Theves, S.
Show abstract
Human general intelligence reflects stable performance correlations across diverse cognitive tasks and predicts major life outcomes. However, the relevant neural information processing mechanisms remain unclear. Structure mapping -- the alignment of novel problems onto the relational structure of prior knowledge -- has been proposed as a core principle in human reasoning. Combining time-resolved neural geometry analyses of task-based fMRI data with cognitive testing in a large sample, we demonstrate structural alignment of newly learned relations to preexisting knowledge representations in parietal cortex. Interindividual differences in neural alignment supported learning and reasoning and, beyond the task level, predicted the latent factor fluid intelligence. These findings provide first neural evidence that the computational principle of structure mapping contributes to individual differences in intelligence.
Matching journals
The top 3 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.