Insight During Development, and its Structural Correlates

We investigate whether adolescents and adults differ in their use of common cognitive processes in solving insight problems. We also investigate whether performance on insight problems is associated with brain structure, and whether these insight-structure associations are distinct or consistent across the two age groups. Common cognitive processes (operationalized by IQ scores) showed a positive trending correlation with insight (operationalized by accuracy in solving verbal riddles) in adults, but not in adolescents. However, these correlations were not significantly different. Thus, we failed to find a cognitive difference between adolescents and adults with regard to insight problem solving. Voxel based morphometry revealed that insight and gray matter volume are related in both age groups. Tract-based spatial statistics revealed that insight and fractional anisotropy values are related in adults. We could not determine whether insight-structure relationships are age-unique or age-consistent.