The network architecture of general intelligence in the human connectome

Advances in network neuroscience challenge the view that general intelligence (g) emerges from a primary brain region or network. Network Neuroscience Theory (NNT) proposes that g arises from coordinated activity across the brain’s global network architecture. We tested predictions from NNT in 831 healthy young adults from the Human Connectome Project. We jointly modeled the brain’s structural topology and intrinsic functional covariation patterns to capture its global topological organization. Our investigation provided evidence that g (1) engages multiple networks, supporting the principle of distributed processing; (2) relies on weak, long-range connections, emphasizing an efficient and globally coordinated network; (3) recruits regions that orchestrate network interactions, supporting the role of modal control in driving global activity; and (4) depends on a small-world architecture for system-wide communication. These results support a shift in perspective from prevailing localist models to a theory that grounds intelligence in the global topology of the human connectome. General intelligence (g) emerges from the global topology of the human connectome. Modeling structure and function in 831 adults reveals g engages distributed networks, weak long-range connections, modal control regions, and a small-world topology.