01456nas a2200121   4500008004100000022001400041245009200055210006900147260000800216520103600224100002601260856004801286       2017                        eng d  a0334-176300aHow neuroscience can inform the study of individual differences in cognitive abilities.0 aHow neuroscience can inform the study of individual differences   cFeb3 aTheories of human mental abilities should be consistent with what is known in neuroscience. Currently, tests of human mental abilities are modeled by cognitive constructs such as attention, working memory, and speed of information processing. These constructs are in turn related to a single general ability. However, brains are very complex systems and whether most of the variability between the operations of different brains can be ascribed to a single factor is questionable. Research in neuroscience suggests that psychological processes such as perception, attention, decision, and executive control are emergent properties of interacting distributed networks. The modules that make up these networks use similar computational processes that involve multiple forms of neural plasticity, each having different time constants. Accordingly, these networks might best be characterized in terms of the information they process rather than in terms of abstract psychological processes such as working memory and executive control.1 aMcFarland, Dennis, J.  uhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28195556