Researchers Show Network Organization Underpins Intelligence

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame led by Aron Barbey and Ramsey Wilcox publish a Nature Communications study analyzing neuroimaging and cognitive data from 831 adults in the Human Connectome Project and 145 adults in the INSIGHT Study. They report evidence supporting the Network Neuroscience Theory: general intelligence arises from system-level properties—efficiency, flexibility, integration—rather than a single brain region. The findings suggest intelligence reflects coordinated network organization and may inform biologically inspired AI design.