Neuroscience: nature vs nurture Current neuroscience research suggests that most newborn infants are born with the potential to achieve in many cognitive areas. There will be some genetic predispositions, but the child's brain is extraordinarily malleable and “teachable”.
Like most aspects of human behavior and cognition, intelligence is a complex trait that is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors.
Genetics do play a big role in making someone more predisposed or not to be intelligent, but the environmental factors cannot be dismissed either. Even if someone is born with a higher chance of being smart, their education, health, and nutrition will affect the overall cognitive development of the individual.
The research shows that while children are born with the potential to be gifted, the environment and nurture plays an important role in developing those innate abilities. In fact, researchers estimate conservatively that environmental influences can add 20-40 points on measured intelligence.
However, for intelligence, heritability increases linearly, from (approximately) 20% in infancy to 40% in adolescence, and to 60% in adulthood. Some evidence suggests that heritability might increase to as much as 80% in later adulthood47 but then decline to about 60% after age 80.
Early twin studies of adult individuals have found a heritability of IQ between 57% and 73%, with some recent studies showing heritability for IQ as high as 80%. IQ goes from being weakly correlated with genetics for children, to being strongly correlated with genetics for late teens and adults.
Does an individual's IQ change with age? An individual's IQ does not change with age. In other words: if you did an IQ test now and then another one in 10 years' time, your IQ score will probably be very similar. This is because IQ is always measured relative to other people your age.
We all think our babies are the cleverest, but IQ isn't everything. The sorts of abilities needed to do well in IQ tests (verbal and spatial working memory, attention tasks, verbal knowledge and motor speed ability) are certainly inheritable, as many studies involving identical and fraternal twins have shown.
Gifted children are born with natural abilities well above the average for their age. If your child is gifted, you might notice these natural abilities in the way they're learning and developing. Children can be gifted in any area of ability, and they can also be gifted in more than one area.
Your IQ is not as fixed as you may think.
Just like genes only influence a part of who we are, the intelligence level we are born with does not dictate our intelligence for life. Our environmental circumstances--like family circumstances, level of school, work environment, and health access--also matter.
People used to believe intelligence was fixed, and could not be improved through effort. Contemporary evidence, however, suggests this may not be the case; while an unintelligent person may never become a genius, it seems increasingly possible that anyone has the ability to strengthen her intellect to some degree.
Current neuroscience research suggests that most newborn infants are born with the potential to achieve in many cognitive areas. There will be some genetic predispositions, but the child's brain is extraordinarily malleable and “teachable”.
To those who knew of his son, William James Sidis was quite possibly the smartest man who ever lived. Born in Boston in 1898, William James Sidis made the headlines in the early 20th century as a child prodigy with an amazing intellect.
Causes of Genius
Scientists don't know exactly what causes someone to be a genius. There is probably a genetic component to your level of intelligence. Certain types of genes influence how much intellectual power you have. Your child's genetic influences affect their motivation, confidence, and other traits.
Very smart children may seem advanced in many ways, but a new study shows they actually lag behind other kids in development of the "thinking" part of the brain. The brain's outer mantle, or cortex, gets thicker and then thins during childhood and the teen years.
Highly intelligent people are usually highly rational, even when they are also emotionally intense. They enjoy finding solutions to big problems and are aware of their deep potentials. However, they are often misunderstood. Being different, they are often scapegoated.
Research reflects that giftedness does “run in families”: for a gifted child, their genetically-related relatives — siblings and/or parents — are likely to also be gifted, though there are plenty of exceptions.
Most people use terms like “bright,” “gifted,” “exceptional,” “remarkable,” and “talented” interchangeably, but when a psychologist uses the term “gifted,” we're usually talking about something that is statistically quite rare. About 3 to 5 out of every 100 children could be considered gifted.
When do signs of giftedness appear? Signs of giftedness can appear as early as infancy and continue during the toddler and preschool years. Testing for giftedness and high IQ, however, usually takes place around age 5.
But genetics can explain the wide range of possible IQs too because so many different genes are involved in developing and running a brain. It is possible, for example, to inherit all the higher IQ genes from each parent and leave the lower IQ ones behind. Now the child will be brighter than the parent.
A new study shows that first-born children tend to be smarter than their siblings and second-born children are more likely to cause trouble. The University of Edinburgh study reported that the oldest child tends to have a higher IQ and thinking skills than their younger siblings.
Joseph Hotz and Juan Pantano and they found that the oldest kids had higher IQs, performed better at school in terms of grades, and are believed to be more accomplished.
Like, is Elon Musk a genius? It answered, Elon Musk's IQ is reported to be 155, which is very high compared to the average of 100.
Chess study suggests human brain peaks at 35 years of age | World Economic Forum.
This allows consideration of the rate of change and recovery being made. The average child's IQ is not stable until around four years of age. It may be much later in children who were born early or who have significant health issues.