Neuroscience of Intelligence

Welcome to our website! The purpose of this website is to provide its readers with information regarding neuroscience of intelligence. In particular, our aims are to provide some information about age and gender differences in intelligence, neuropsychological testing, different theories about the nature of intelligence (heredity vs. environment), and artificial intelligence.

Perhaps the best place to start in this site would be with the many possible definitions of intelligence. It is surprisingly hard to define. Some theorists go so far as to assign mutltiple types of intelligence, an idea that fits well with the fact that everyone has different talents, and that two people considered 'geniuses' may have two completely different sets of skills. A common set of seven intelligences is discussed in Types of Intelligence. In The idea of g a possible explanation for why some people are more intelligent than others is examined. These two pages should provide a solid foundation for understanding what exactly intelligence is.

This site was built during spring semester of 2004-2005 academic year by us, a group of five students enrolled in the Behavioral Neuroscience class here at Macalester College. Jack Payne provides information about how age can effect intelligence, while Nate Vernon discusses gender differences in intelligence. Rustem Onkal focuses on the famous ‘nature vs. nurture’ debate of intelligence and he discusses the role of heredity vs. environment in the development of intelligence. Andrea Levine writes about neuropsychological testing and also spectroscopy. Finally, Michael Blythe focuses on artificial intelligence. We'd like our readers to know that we are very willing to hear your praise or critiques of our site, so please feel free to e-mail!

Our advisor in this project is Prof. Eric Wiertelak, who has provided both direction and motivation during the creation of this webpage. Explore our site through the navigation bar to your left. Enjoy!