It is common to observe girls and women of brilliant intellect offering impulsive, slow, or seemingly disconnected responses in everyday conversations. Society is quick to label them as inattentive or, paradoxically, less intelligent than they actually are. However, neuroscience reveals that what appears to be a “reasoning error” is, in fact, a sophisticated survival mechanism operating within a unique brain architecture.
At the Research Center, by mapping the neuroarchitecture genetics of profiles with Dual Exceptionality (Giftedness associated with traits of the Autism Spectrum), we identified a structural pattern so specific that we propose to call it the Cortical Asynchrony Phenotype.
To understand this phenotype, we need to abandon the idea that the brain functions at a single speed. The high-performance neurodivergent brain is a machine of extreme contrasts.
On the one hand, these women possess a very high-powered executive “engine.” Neurogenetics often reveals an enlarged frontal lobe—the most evolved region of the brain, responsible for complex planning and deep abstract reasoning. In addition, these individuals exhibit extremely high innate Fluid Intelligence, meaning their brains operate like supercomputers in identifying logical patterns.
Why, then, does the response fail or take a long time during a test or social conversation? The answer lies in the brain’s “fiber optic cables,” the white matter.
The Cortical Asynchrony Phenotype is characterized by a structural mismatch: there is massive frontal processing power, but a physical bottleneck in the translation and integration pathways. We observe in these profiles a reduced structural efficiency in critical pathways, such as the Posterior Corona Radiata—the highway responsible for integrating what a person sees and hears (sensory) with the physical action of speaking or writing (motor).
At the same time, areas such as the Superior Frontal Gyrus, responsible for keeping multiple context “folders” open simultaneously in working memory, may present reduced volume.
The daily result of this architecture is exhausting. When a new variable arises in a conversation, the brain of a woman with dual exceptionality lacks the structural flexibility to immediately create a new context; it tries to fit the new information into the previous rule, causing what parents call “thinking reversal.”
And what about quick and seemingly illogical responses? They are pure biological defense. With the thalamus (the brain’s sensory filter) working at extreme capacity, the social environment and the pressures of communication become unbearably noisy. To escape this overload, the brain activates rapid lexical access pathways (such as the Uncinate Fasciculus), firing off the first available word without going through the prefrontal cortex’s “quality inspector.” The quick and “wrong” response is not ignorance; it is the brain sacrificing semantic precision to alleviate immediate sensory pressure.
Society measures intelligence by the speed of reflexes and instantaneous articulation. But neuroscience warns us: exceptional minds are not necessarily synchronized minds. Women with the Cortical Asynchrony Phenotype don’t need us to speak louder or demand “more attention” from them. They need, neurobiologically, the social permission of time. The exact time for the genius that resides in the frontal lobe to cross the bottlenecks of white matter and reach the real world.
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.