Why is the Professor Absent-Minded? The Neuroscience of “Smart” Stereotypes

  

Intellectuals have long been stereotyped in literature and popular media. With the advent of modern tools for neuroscience, we are allowed to literally peek into the minds of the intellectually gifted and there we find the underpinnings of our society's "smart" stereotypes.

Consider for a moment the “Absent-Minded Professor. This figure, often shown pondering complex formulas and grand abstractions, is characterized by mismatched socks, “lost” glasses on his head, and late appearances to classes with papers all a mess. This “She may be able to terraform Mars but she can’t find her keys”-type of disorganization is not a weakness of character, it is a weakness in the brain’s executive functioning. Interestingly, brain scans of highly gifted children show that the prefrontal cortex is less developed (thinner) than that of more intellectually typical peers. The prefrontal cortex is home to the executive functions, and they are responsible for planning, organizing, and pacing. The prefrontal cortex is thinner in the highly gifted, it is thought, because these children are busy wiring deep in their minds (noting relationships, forming hypothesis, wondering…), rather than attending to more immediate needs such as orientation in time and space.

The predisposition to “deep brain” thinking in some highly gifted children may help explain the evolution of the “nerd” stereotype as well.  Rather than working on hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills, some highly gifted children spend more time thinking than moving. The lack of athleticism and perpetually broken eyeglasses which embody the nerd stereotype, may be rooted in this early preferential behavior.

What about the “Mad Scientist?” What neurological underpinnings can account for this intellectual stereotype?  Studies show a measurably thicker corpus callosum in gifted individuals than in typical peers. The corpus callosum is the structure which supports “dialogue” between the two hemispheres of the brain. The thicker the corpus callosum, the more efficient the communication between the neural networks of opposite hemispheres - some of which may seem unrelated. The firing of broad neural networks together, it is thought, can generate ideas which before were unimagined.  The “Ah ha!” moment and an eccentric world view can both be due to the efficiency of a corpus callosum which carries signals frequently and fast.

By considering possible neurological roots for behavioral patterns in some highly gifted, the human impulse to label and judge may be eased. Let’s forget the stereotypes and celebrate the wonderful diversity and talent in the highly gifted among us.