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IQ during adolescence can undergo significant changes
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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British scientists have confirmed parents' long-held suspicions: IQ can rise and fall during adolescence, and the structure of the brain reflects these changes.
This is the first direct evidence that intelligence changes after early childhood and that brain abilities can be developed.
Although researchers debate what IQ tests actually measure, most agree that scores can predict the ability to learn and perform certain tasks, and thus can be used to some extent to predict academic achievement and job performance. Test scores are also generally believed to remain relatively stable over the lifespan.
Neurologist Katie Price of University College London (UK) and her colleagues tested 33 teenagers (19 boys and 14 girls) in 2004, when they were aged 12 to 16, and in 2008, when the respondents were aged 15 to 20. The subjects completed tests of verbal (reading, naming objects) and non-verbal (solving puzzles with their hands) abilities. At the same time, the researchers monitored brain activity using magnetic resonance imaging.
The results of the first and second tests could differ significantly - by as much as 20 points. Some teenagers saw improvements or decreases in their verbal or non-verbal skills, while others saw one parameter increase and another decrease.
The brain hasn't stood still either. For example, teenagers who improved their verbal test scores had increased gray matter density in the area that activates speech. And those kids whose nonverbal skills improved had changes in the area associated with motor skills.
The main conclusion of the study is that neither in early childhood nor in early adolescence can one predict how smart a person will become in the near future.
The reasons why this happens are unclear. Perhaps learning and other factors that stimulate brain activity (or lack thereof) play a role. There is a suspicion that IQ does not remain constant even in adulthood.
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