Interpretation of high VIQ - PIQ difference - NVLD

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My understanding is that PIQ represents task that requires the combination of "left brain" VIQ and "right brain" Visual-Spatial IQ.
Is this understanding correct?

Then, a high VIQ - PIQ difference could come from:

1) Right brain defects / low right brain IQ.

2) Defects in right-left brain coordination.

3) Brain differentiation.

NVLD is often described as (1) - damages in right brain and a lack of ability to feel emotions (The last point also goes for Alexithymia).

ASD is usually not thought to be caused by brain damage - so it does not quite compute that NVLD should be.

My IQ profile fits more (2). Then problems with expressing emotions could be just verbalising them, as emotions sits in the right brain, but verbalising them requires coordination with left brain.
A lot of other ASD issues can perhaps be expressed as a tendency to be stuck in the left brain?

This also computes with cerebellar problems often seen in ASD/NVLD.

(3) is most interesting, as the it would then be more a difference than a defect.
(Its why men are smarter than women
Though it doesn't quite compute with the level of NVLD beeing quite similar in men and women.


Backgroud

VIQ - Verbal IQ
PIQ - Permormance IQ
NVLD is pretty much defined by a high VIQ-PIQ difference. It also high in ASD, and populations are overlapping.
(But the NVLD population is bigger)

NVLD is quite evenly spread between men and women, while ASD is much more common in boys.

Last edited by mrsmith on 23 Jun 2012, 8:09 am, edited 4 times in total.

I find your theories to be rather interesting.

Number 2- that the brain has difficulties in communication--seems like it can also explain other autistic traits. Our motor clumsiness, for example, is perhaps due to our brain and muscles not communicating with each other properly.

I have to politely dissent with you on the statement that men are smarter than women. Men tend to be more left-brained than women, yes, and may excel in the sciences and mathematics at a higher percent than women. This, however, is only one type of intelligence. It has been widely accepted that women, as a whole, test better in multitasking than men do. Women also tend to be more emphatic than men, which is a sort of intelligence in and of itself. I am not trying to claim that women are smarter than men; indeed, both genders are highly intelligent. They are just intelligent in different ways.

difference between verbal and performance IQ is due to learning disabilities. i don't think the exact brain location of the disabilities has been defined.

My verbal is 95th percentile and my performance is 37th percentile and I have Asperger's. I feel this is a large difference, I'm also female. Interpretation?

I think its more that both motoric problems and right-left communication problems are associated with the Cerebellum?

This difference amazes me because of my own life experience. Back in the 6th grade, I was tested for this differentiation and found to be very high in one side and low in the other ( I believe it was high right, low left). Yet, I was never diagnosed ASD but rather ADHD. Did no one see the other signs, like the social dysfunctions, lack of eye contact (that I used to get yelled at for by adults all the time) and obsessive singular interest? Now I guess my next step is to see if my parents still have that test so that I can possibly confirm what I believe to be true. Thanks for posting this as it gives me another piece of the puzzle to research.

I think that's a bit the opposite of NVLD/ASD. Sometimes though an uneven IQ profile is seen as an indicator of problems, more than VIQ-PIQ by itself.

interesting stuff. i can't attest to it's validity but i do know that the idea of left and right brain functional localisation and functional localisation of the brain in general is outdated

Many people diagnosed with various PDDs have score scatter, have VIQ > PIQ, or PIQ > VIQ, I think the VIQ > PIQ is more dominant in NVLD, and in many people with AS, but an autistic person can end up with a pretty wide variety of IQ profiles. IQ scores really can't be used to diagnose a developmental disorder, but it can help identify many of the relevant problems.

My main IQ score split is within PIQ, and a significant part of autistic people have something similar, a high PRI (Perceptual Reasoning Index) and a low PSI (Processing Speed index). The difference in my case is so much (44 points) that PIQ and VIQ can not be calculated.

Some diagnostician like to use VCI/PRI difference to differentiate between diagnostic labels on the spectrum (VCI>PRI -> AS and VCI<PRI -> AD or PDD-NOS). I don't know much about NVLD, but I think there's much more to it than a large difference between IQ sub-indexes, like VIQ>>PIQ or VCI>>PRI. There are other diagnostic criteria.

My VIQ is like 130+, and my PIQ is like 80 or less.

My VIQ>PIQ gap used to be huge when I was a kid. It's smaller now. I guess I've learned to integrate the different areas of my brain better.

Working memory and attention are still horrible, and always have been; but what else is new?

The verbal/performance structure wasn't designed to measure the relative strength of the hemispheres, but was discovered to be a good general indication in this regard after it was administered.

Men are NOT smarter than women. Women are NOT smarter than men. ALL genders have roughly the same average IQ (around 100). The only thing that has been proven is that males do tend to have higher abilities in rotating 3D objects in the mind and that females tend to have higher verbal/vocabulary abilities. This is attributed to sex hormones creating SMALL brain differences. It is false to say that a person's biological sex does not create SOME brain differences, but it is just as false to say that biological sex creates a difference in intelligence. Look up the many studies on SAT and gender differences- females do not score significantly worse on SAT math UNLESS they are provided with some sort of stereotype threat beforehand.

Furthermore, while there is evidence of lateralization in verbal/visual-spatial abilities, the amount of lateralization is not nearly as much as is talked about in the general public. Yes, 97% of right-handers have their Broca's and Wernicke's areas in the left hemisphere, and yes, NVLD/visual-spatial problems seem to be related to the right hemisphere, but both hemispheres need to work TOGETHER to do pretty much every task. Even if you are a whiz at mathematical calculation, if you can't read, how can you do a word problem? Learning disabilities are probably much more a cause of improper white matter and faulty connections between brain regions than they are from a problem with one of the hemispheres.

Finally, NVLD is defined as a significant difference between VIQ and PIQ. But it doesn't mean that there is a LOW PIQ. It simply means that the PIQ is 15+ points lower than the VIQ. I have a high-average PIQ, but I still have NVLD. Why? Because my VIQ is in the very superior range. So, if my brain were "normal," my PIQ should also be in the very superior range. But just because I have a relatively good score on PIQ doesn't mean that I don't have a learning disability. It is the mismatch that is the disorder, not the actual IQ score.

Wrong on several counts.

Firstly, math isn't left-brained, math is (mostly) right-brained. There's a strong link between math and spatial skills, and people with right hemisphere damage often have acalculia (inability to do math). NVLD typically impairs math skills too.

Secondly, inasmuch as there is any difference in learning style between men and women, it's actually women who are more left-brained. Women tend to do slightly better at verbal skills than men, starting in infancy, and somewhat poorer in math. On average, on the SAT, women score higher on the verbal section and men on the math section, though of course these differences are slight compared to the variation between individuals.

Thirdly, 'right-brained' and 'left-brained' are kind of a misnomer anyway. With the exception of some individuals with brain damage restricted to one hemisphere, most people's strengths and weaknesses do not follow the pattern of one hemisphere being strong and the other weak. Instead, some left-brain functions are strong and others are weak, and the samje for right brain functions.

For example, although women tend to be better at verbal skills, a left-hemisphere function, they also tend to be better at reading nonverbal cues, which is a right-brain function. For another example, people with Williams Syndrome have far higher VIQ than PIQ, extremely poor spatial and math skills (they draw exploded pictures because they can't put the parts together) and are unusually eloquent and verbose given their mild-moderate cognitive disability (all suggesting better left hemisphere function), but they also tend to be passionate about music and have a higher rate of musical talent (1 out of 4 have perfect pitch, and most have an excellent sense of rhythm) which is a right-hemisphere strength.

And regarding AS/autism and VIQ>PIQ:

VIQ>PIQ is more common in AS. But so is PIQ>VIQ. In fact, if you divide autistics into three groups based on whether their VIQ and PIQ are 15 points apart and which one's higher, you get roughly a third in each category - VIQ>PIQ, VIQ=PIQ and PIQ>VIQ are about the same frequency.