ReviewProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
Fluid intelligence and the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system.
Review in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The relation between number line performance and mathematics outcomes: Two meta-analyses.Developmental science · 2024Pooled it
- Resolving mesoscale brainstem-prefrontal-striatal pathways underlying decisions upon salient events using submillimeter-resolution fMRI.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Research progress on the role of the locus coeruleus in cognitive function.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Review
- Stimulating the Stimulated Cortex-Frontocortical Anodal Electric Stimulation Combined With Closed-Loop Acoustic Stimulation During Sleep Impairs Memory in Subjects With High Cognitive Ability.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- No evidence for association between pupil size and fluid intelligence among either children or adults.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Article
- Age-related differences in locus coeruleus intensity across a demographically diverse sample.Neurobiology of aging · 2025Article
- Disease-specific neuropathological alterations of the locus coeruleus in Alzheimer's disease, Down syndrome, and Parkinson's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Article
- Playful brains: a possible neurobiological pathway to cognitive health in aging.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Individual differences in baseline eye movement indices: Examining the relationships between baseline pupil size, inhibitory control, and fixation stability.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Functionality of arousal-regulating brain circuitry at rest predicts human cognitive abilities.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Regulation of nociception threshold by norepinephrine through adrenergic α2 receptor in rat models of Parkinson's disease.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2024Article
- Article
- Unique Pathology in the Locus Coeruleus of Individuals with Down Syndrome.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2024Article
- Noradrenergic gene variation shaping vulnerability and resilience by affecting mental health-related characteristics: A systematic review.Neuroscience applied · 2024Article
- Assessing the Role of Locus Coeruleus Degeneration in Essential Tremor and Parkinson's Disease with Sleep Disorders.Journal of Parkinson's disease · 2024Article
- Baseline Pupil Size Seems Unrelated to Fluid Intelligence, Working Memory Capacity, and Attentional Control.Journal of cognition · 2024Article
- Locus coeruleus neuromelanin accumulation and dissipation across the lifespan.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Disruption of locus coeruleus-related functional networks in Parkinson's disease.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2023Article
- Pupillary response is associated with the reset and switching of functional brain networks during salience processing.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The last decade has seen significant progress identifying genetic and brain differences related to intelligence. However, there remain considerable gaps in our understanding of how cognitive mechanisms that underpin intelligence map onto various brain functions. In this article, we argue that the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system is essential for understanding the biological basis of intelligence. We review evidence suggesting that the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system plays a central role at all levels of brain function, from metabolic processes to the organization of large-scale brain networks. We connect this evidence with our executive attention view of working-memory capacity and fluid intelligence and present analyses on baseline pupil size, an indicator of locus coeruleus activity. Using a latent variable approach, our analyses showed that a common executive attention factor predicted baseline pupil size. Additionally, the executive attention function of disengagement--not maintenance--uniquely predicted baseline pupil size. These findings suggest that the ability to control attention may be important for understanding how cognitive mechanisms of fluid intelligence map onto the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system. We discuss how further research is needed to better understand the relationships between fluid intelligence, the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system, and functionally organized brain networks.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.