New! Sign up for our free email newsletter.
Reference Terms
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Intellectual giftedness

Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. Giftedness is a trait that starts at birth and continues throughout the life-span. Giftedness is not a marker of success, but rather of aptitude or the inherent ability to learn. Gifted children often develop asynchronously; their minds are often ahead of their physical growth, and specific cognitive and emotional functions are often at different stages of development. Gifted individuals also experience the world differently, resulting in unique social and emotional issues. Some research suggests that gifted children have greater psychomotor, sensual, imaginative, intellectual, and emotional "overexcitabilities". Many schools use a variety of measures of students' capability and potential when identifying gifted children. These may include portfolios of student work, classroom observations, achievement measures, and intelligence scores. Most educational professionals accept that no single measure can be used in isolation to accurately identify a gifted child. Most IQ tests do not have the capacity to discriminate accurately at higher IQ levels, and are perhaps only effective at determining whether a student is gifted rather than distinguishing among levels of giftedness. Although the Wechsler tests have a ceiling of about 160, their creator has admitted that they are intended to be used within the average range (between 70 and 130), and are not intended for use at the extreme ends of the population.

Related Stories
 


Mind & Brain News

July 22, 2026

Miniature brain models grown from patients’ cells revealed striking differences in how Alzheimer’s-related tissue responds to an antidepressant. The organoids and the particles they release could eventually guide more personalized treatments and ...
A single dose of psilocybin produced measurable changes in brain activity and possible changes in brain structure that lasted for up to a month. Participants who experienced the greatest increase in flexible, varied brain activity also reported more ...
Watching television very often in midlife may be linked to troubling brain changes decades later. In a study of about 1,700 adults, frequent TV viewers later showed smaller brain regions involved in memory, decision-making, and visual processing, ...
Researchers have uncovered a surprising culprit behind sleep loss in Alzheimer’s disease: the brain’s own immune cells. In mice with amyloid plaques, overactive microglia triggered inflammation ...
A protein called SORLA may act as a powerful defense against the toxic tau tangles involved in Alzheimer’s disease. Mice with extra SORLA had less tau accumulation, less brain atrophy, and ...
The mysterious sound known as The Hum has been reported worldwide for decades, yet its source often remains impossible to find. Researchers tested whether people who hear it have exceptional low-frequency hearing or measurable sounds produced inside ...
A low-cost antidepressant may offer new hope for people struggling with long COVID fatigue. In a randomized clinical trial involving 399 adults, fluvoxamine significantly reduced fatigue and improved quality of life compared with a placebo, making ...
Several popular sugar substitutes may not be as harmless as they seem. Adults who consumed the most artificial sweeteners showed substantially faster declines in memory and thinking, especially if they were under 60 or had diabetes. The highest ...
The Mediterranean diet may influence aging through tiny proteins produced inside the cell’s mitochondria. Older adults who followed the diet most closely had higher levels of humanin and SHMOOSE, ...
A drug originally developed for spinal cord injury may offer a fresh approach to treating Alzheimer’s disease. In mouse studies, KCL-286 repaired dangerous DNA damage, reduced inflammation, and targeted multiple disease-related pathways instead of ...
A new experimental treatment may have found a way to outsmart glioblastoma’s toughest defense: the blood-brain barrier. Researchers used sugar-coated nanoparticles to ferry genetic instructions ...
An existing constipation drug may have an unexpected new use: helping clear the "brain fog" that often lingers after depression. In a small clinical trial, people with a history of depression who took the medication prucalopride for about a week ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:56 pm ET