Neurosurgeons and rocket engineers turned out to be no smarter than the rest of the people
Research shows that scientists working on the finest matters – brain problems and space technology – are no smarter than everyone else.
Studied data from hundreds of aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons show that they are not necessarily smarter than the general population, the researchers found.
According to The Guardian, the researchers studied data from an international cohort of 329 aerospace engineers and 72 neurosurgeons who performed 12 tasks online using the Great British Intelligence Test (GBIT) on the Cognitron platform, and also answered questions about their age, gender and level of experience in their specialty.
The tasks examined various aspects of cognition, including planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and the ability to process emotions. The researchers then compared the results with those previously received from more than 18,000 members of the British public.
The results, which were published in the medical journal The BMJ, show that only neurosurgeons showed a significant difference in faster problem resolution rates, but showed slower memory recovery compared to the general population.
“The difference in problem-solving speed that neurosurgeons exhibit may be due to the dynamic nature of neurosurgery, which attracts those who already have a propensity for fast processing, or it may, albeit less likely, be the result of learning to make quick decisions in critical in time situations, “the researchers noted.
The study authors said the study was conducted, in part, to put an end to the question of whether one profession was intellectually superior.
However, the team found little difference between the cognitive abilities of aerospace engineers and neuroscientists, although the results show that the former had higher scores for attention and mental manipulation, such as rotating objects in the head, while neurosurgeons scored higher in solving semantic problems (such as definitions of rare words).
“Basically, we think it shows that everyone has different skills, some people are better at some things and others are better at others, and it’s very difficult to be better at everything across the board,” says Aswin Chari, neurosurgeon. intern at Great Ormond Street Hospital and study author.
Referring to the two professions examined in the study, Chari adds, “It’s not that they are better at everything, but they are better at certain things that make them good at what they do.”
“It is also possible that other professions deserve to be on this pedestal, and future work should be directed towards identifying the most worthy group,” the researchers say.
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