[Desafinado]

Hyper Brain, Hyper Body: The Trouble With High IQ - Neuroscience News

Hyper Brain / Hyper Body: The Trouble with High IQ

A new study in the journal Intelligence reports that highly intelligent people have a significantly increased risk of suffering from a variety of psychological and physiological disorders.

Karpinski and her colleagues developed a hyper brain / hyper body theory of integration. It posits that individuals with high cognitive ability react with an overexcitable emotional and behavioral response to their environment. Due in part to this increased awareness of their surroundings, people with a high IQ then tend to experience an overexcitable, hyperreactive central nervous system.

“If high intelligence was not a risk factor for these diseases and disorders, we would see a similar prevalence rate between the two groups,� explains Audrey Kinase Kolb, co-author. “However, in this study, the Mensa population had significantly higher rates across the board. For example, just over 10% of the US has a diagnosed anxiety disorder, compared to 20% for Mensans. For these conditions, having a high intelligence is related to having between 2 to 4 times the chance of having a diagnosis compared to the average American.�

“While falling within the extreme right tail of the Bell Curve is generally touted as a ‘gift’ leading to exceptional outcomes, this is not always the case,� says Karpinski. Those with high IQ possess unique intensities and overexcitabilities which can be at once both remarkable and disabling on many levels.

I'm wondering if anyone here can relate to this. I've been diagnosed Bipolar, but believe I also fall into this range of hyper brain / hyper body. To date I haven't found anyone who feels that they share the same problem.

[saucygirl31]

i have a high tested IQ from WAIS, but am not overexcitabile. mines genetic.

[AspiringAuthor]

Only my verbal ID from WAIS is very high - non-verbal is average and spatial is low. I can relate to what you posted, but have to regard is as a special gift with which I would not want to part.

[veronicadolittle]

I have always thought there is a connection between my quite high intelligence and my bipolar disorder. In fact, I refused medication for many years because in my hypomanic states I was able to do more research, study harder, write better articles, etc. I ended up getting my PhD but being unmedicated and bipolar caught up with me and I ended up with one of my worse suicide attempts causing brain damage. Now I'm above average intelligence and medicated and much happier.

[Zeroid]

I did an IQ test once (very informally), and scored 156, which is genius level. I was not convinced by the results. People tell me that I am clever, but I find it hard to believe. It's not that I have low self esteem, it's that there are so many things I cannot understand. I'm in grad school at the moment and last week I couldn't complete the week's assignment. my wife thinks I got too in my head, and I worry that my mental health problems prevents me from working effectively. I know that the meds can make me stupid. I don't care so much about the link as I do despair of it.

[*Beth*]

Ha. Yeah. And I've suspected that for decades. Unfortunately, all the years of taking meds, meds, meds have impacted my intellect. Can we all say...One Flew Over thew Cuckoo's Nest...

[bpcyclist]

I have a high IQ by testing, but I don't think it means anything. Never have. I am really good at taking tests. Always have been. It just comes easily to me. It's like a game to me. So, I look good when it comes to test scores. But there are so many other different kinds of intelligence. There's, for lack of a better phrase. academic intelligence. People who excel at school-related stuff. Both course-work and testing.There's emotional intelligence (people who think about feelings, benefit from criticism, show authenticity and empathy, praise others, give feedback and apologize, etc.). I believe personally that there is musical intelligence (Mozart; Miles Davis) and artistic intelligence (Van Gogh; Rembrandt; Donatello; Rodin; Baryshnikov, Makarova). There are people who are geniuses at math or physics (Einstein; Gauss; Galileo, Newton), but who can barely compose a properly-formatted, grammatically correct one-page essay. Even within the writing genre, there are folks who are genius at poetry (Shakespeare; Whitman), those who are superb writing novels or short stories (Dostoyevsky; Dickens), and others who excel in non-fiction (Orwell; Capote). Nowadays, I suppose there are probably geniuses at video games. Athletic geniuses. Youtube geniuses. And so on.

So anyhow, I just think this testing is really just about making an industry that ultimately can charge for its services. The testing business. IQ testing has, in my personal experience both going to school forever and then running a fair-sized business, really zero predictive value in terms of how a person will perform in an academic setting or a work setting. That's because IQ testing doesn't measure things like emotional intelligence. It is evaluating a very, very narrow set of abilities. Living life, going to school and working, is about way more than that narrow band being tested for. Just my 2 cents.

[fern46]

Originally Posted by bpcyclist

I have a high IQ by testing, but I don't think it means anything. Never have. I am really good at taking tests. Always have been. It just comes easily to me. It's like a game to me. So, I look good when it comes to test scores. But there are so many other different kinds of intelligence. There's, for lack of a better phrase. academic intelligence. People who excel at school-related stuff. Both course-work and testing.There's emotional intelligence (people who think about feelings, benefit from criticism, show authenticity and empathy, praise others, give feedback and apologize, etc.). I believe personally that there is musical intelligence (Mozart; Miles Davis) and artistic intelligence (Van Gogh; Rembrandt; Donatello; Rodin; Baryshnikov, Makarova). There are people who are geniuses at math or physics (Einstein; Gauss; Galileo, Newton), but who can barely compose a properly-formatted, grammatically correct one-page essay. Even within the writing genre, there are folks who are genius at poetry (Shakespeare; Whitman), those who are superb writing novels or short stories (Dostoyevsky; Dickens), and others who excel in non-fiction (Orwell; Capote). Nowadays, I suppose there are probably geniuses at video games. Athletic geniuses. Youtube geniuses. And so on.

So anyhow, I just think this testing is really just about making an industry that ultimately can charge for its services. The testing business. IQ testing has, in my personal experience both going to school forever and then running a fair-sized business, really zero predictive value in terms of how a person will perform in an academic setting or a work setting. That's because IQ testing doesn't measure things like emotional intelligence. It is evaluating a very, very narrow set of abilities. Living life, going to school and working, is about way more than that narrow band being tested for. Just my 2 cents.

Nailed it.

[sarahsweets]

Whenever anyone mentions their high IQ and also makes sure you know that it’s a tested one or WAIS supported( even sharing their score) I really wonder if a test like that means anything. No offense to anyone but they haven’t developed a secondary way to measure intelligence. I’m starting to see intelligence as subjective.

[~Christina]

I just can’t even say what I think about this LOL

[sarahsweets]

Originally Posted by ~Christina

I just can’t even say what I think about this LOL