Schedule of Events | Symposia

Greater flexibility in complex behaviour is linked to greater activity in primary systems.

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Samyogita Hardikar¹, Raven Wallace¹, Louis Chitiz¹, Bridget Mullholland¹, Beth Jefferies², Robert Leech³, Jonathan Smallwood¹; ¹Department of Psychology, Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada, ²Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK, ³Centre for Neuroimaging Science, King’s College London, London, UK

Intelligence supports complex behavior and consists of two key components: fluid intelligence, reflecting problem-solving and adaptability, and crystallized intelligence, involving learned procedures and knowledge. While both forms are crucial, their differential brain-wide underpinnings remain unclear. To address this gap, we analyzed task-fMRI data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP, s1200 release, N=986) using a "state-space" approach. We projected individual task-evoked brain activity onto a common "state-space" by calculating the similarity between 13 un-thresholded first-level contrast maps from seven diverse cognitive tasks and the first three latent dimensions of resting-state functional connectivity described by Margulies et. al., (2016): (1) primary vs. association cortex, (2) visual vs. somatosensory systems, and (3) default mode network (DMN) vs. fronto-parietal systems. In a multiple regression analysis we used the state-space locations as outcome, and task condition, fluid and crystallized intelligence, and their interaction terms as predictor variables, with subject and family as random effects. We found that high fluid intelligence was linked to greater association cortex engagement during high-demand tasks (e.g., 2-back working memory), while high crystallized intelligence showed reduced association cortex engagement during lower-demand tasks (e.g., 0-back). Fluid intelligence was associated with greater sensory and motor activity during visual and motor tasks respectively, while crystallized intelligence was linked to greater visual system engagement during high-demand tasks (e.g., 2-back). Together these results suggest that there are multiple routes to complex intelligent behaviour with greater flexibility linked to greater activity within primary systems.

Topic Area: THINKING: Other