Multi-Task Brain Network Reconfiguration is Inversely Associated with Human Intelligence

Intelligence describes the general cognitive ability level of a person. It is one of the most fundamental concepts in psychological science and is crucial for effective adaption of behavior to varying environmental demands. Changing external task demands have been shown to induce reconfiguration of functional brain networks. However, whether neural reconfiguration between different tasks is associated with intelligence has not yet been investigated. We used fMRI data from 812 subjects to show that higher scores of general intelligence are related to less brain network reconfiguration between resting state and seven different task states as well as to network reconfiguration between tasks. This association holds for all functional brain networks except the motor system, and replicates in two independent samples ( N = 138, N = 184). Our findings suggest that the intrinsic network architecture of individuals with higher intelligence scores is closer to the network architecture as required by various cognitive demands. Multi-task brain network reconfiguration may, therefore, represent a neural reflection of the behavioral positive manifold – the essence of the concept of general intelligence. Finally, our results support neural efficiency theories of cognitive ability and reveal insights into human intelligence as an emergent property from a distributed multi-task brain network.