By Dr. Fabiano de Abreu Agrela Rodrigues Neuroscientist, post PhD, intelligence specialist and member of Sigma Xi
What is the true measure of intelligence?
We live in a metric-obsessed age. IQ tests continue to be used as the gold standard for assessing intelligence, especially in educational and organizational settings. However, as a neuroscientist who has spent years studying the biological and genetic basis of human cognition, I can say with certainty that having a high IQ does not necessarily mean being truly intelligent.
Limitations of IQ tests
Traditional IQ measures, in a technical and systematic way, specific components of cognition that belong to the domain of structured intelligence. Among the most widely used instruments, the WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) is considered the most comprehensive within this category. It mainly assesses fluid intelligence, working memory, processing speed and logical reasoning. These abilities are examined through tasks such as solving matrices, repeating and manipulating digits, identifying visual patterns, associating symbols and interpreting verbal similarities.
From a neurofunctional point of view, this type of assessment predominantly recruits regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is involved in logical reasoning and deliberate decision-making, the superior parietal cortex, which participates in visuospatial manipulation and calculation, the medial temporal cortex, associated with short-term memory, and secondary visual areas of the occipital lobe, responsible for pattern recognition.
However, this brain circuit represents only a fraction of human intelligence. Even the most sophisticated IQ tests do not activate or assess regions that are essential for complex, functional cognition. These include the medial prefrontal cortex, involved in introspection and self-reflection; the temporoparietal junction, essential for empathy and social thinking; the anterior cingulate cortex, responsible for monitoring conflicts and adapting to ambiguous stimuli; the default mode network, which enables symbolic construction and creative imagination; the orbitofrontal cortex, which modulates emotion, affective decision-making, and social anticipation; the anterior insula, involved in somatic and emotional self-awareness; and the limbic system, particularly the amygdala and hippocampus, which assign affective value to cognitive experiences.
These regions, although not assessed in traditional tests, are crucial for the emergence of subjective creativity, emotional intelligence, the ability to abstract without prior instruction and strategic adaptation in complex contexts. Thus, although IQ offers relevant data on basic cognitive performance, it is insufficient to measure intelligence in its most elaborate, integrative and transformative form.
The intelligence that transforms the world, that creates theories, works, and original ideas, is not entirely there. The IQ test does not measure imagination, self-awareness, symbolic vision, regulated emotion, or subjective creativity, that rare ability to formulate something new and useful without having learned it beforehand. This is the most sophisticated form of cognition. And it is precisely this that the greatest inventors, artists, and thinkers of humanity have mobilized.
Creativity requires more than logic.
Subjective creativity involves the activation of much broader and more integrative systems, such as the Default Mode Network (DMN), the temporoparietal junction, the orbitofrontal cortex, and the limbic system. These regions are responsible for combining memories, emotions, and symbolic abstractions into new meanings. They are what enable divergent and original thinking.
Emotion is a resource here, not a flaw. Without it, thinking becomes dry, technical, and predictable. Great ideas come from the fusion of logic and emotion. They come from those who feel intensely but know how to regulate that intensity, a balance that is only possible when the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior insula, and the dopaminergic circuits of creative feedback have matured.
Adaptive perfectionism as a creative trait
People with high subjective creativity often have a personality trait that sets them apart: adaptive perfectionism. This means that they strive for excellence while being aware of their limitations, without being paralyzed by failure. They are willing to take risks, fail, and try again—not out of impulsiveness, but because they understand themselves deeply. This self-awareness is one of the pillars of complex intelligence.
Why do so many gifted people never get anywhere?
I often see gifted individuals stuck in repetition. Excellent in logic, but incapable of creativity. Brilliant in solving given problems, but incapable of asking new questions. This is because they master the field of structured literalness, but do not access strategic imagination.
They lack what I call an expanded neurofunctional architecture, a brain in which emotion, logic, symbolism, creativity, and self-control operate in synchrony. This is the model I propose with the DWRI (Developmental Wide Regions of Intellectual Interference) theory, in which true intellect emerges not from the specialization of one area, but from the broad integration of distributed and dynamic brain networks.
It is not enough to have a high IQ. The most extraordinary intelligence is that which creates where there was none before, that feels deeply without getting lost, that takes risks strategically. IQ tests are still useful, but they are only a snapshot of a part of the mind. True intelligence is movement, complexity, connection. And this is not measured in numbers.
Dr. Fabiano de Abreu Agrela Rodrigues MRSB holds a post-PhD in Neuroscience and is an elected member of Sigma Xi – The Scientific Research Honor Society (more than 200 members of Sigma Xi have received the Nobel Prize), as well as being a member of the Society for Neuroscience in the United States, the Royal Society of Biology and The Royal Society of Medicine in the United Kingdom, the European Society of Human Genetics in Vienna, Austria, and the APA – American Philosophical Association in the United States. He holds a Master’s degree in Psychology and a Bachelor’s degree in History and Biology. He is also a Technologist in Anthropology and Philosophy, with several national and international degrees in Neuroscience and Neuropsychology. Dr. Fabiano is a member of prestigious high IQ societies, including Mensa International, Intertel, ISPE High IQ Society, Triple Nine Society, ISI-Society, and HELLIQ Society High IQ. He is the author of more than 300 scientific studies and 30 books. He is currently a visiting professor at PUCRS in Brazil, UNIFRANZ in Bolivia and Santander in Mexico. He also serves as Director of CPAH – Centro de Pesquisa e Análises Heráclito and is the creator of the GIP project, which estimates IQ through the analysis of genetic intelligence. Dr. Fabiano is also a registered journalist, having his name included in the book of records for achieving four records, one of which is for being the greatest creator of characters in the history of the press.