PICK OF THE WEEK: Does smartness depend on brain size? No, say scientists People with big brains are not necessarily cleverer than people with smaller ones, scientists have found. Research suggests it’s the way your brain changes as you grow up which makes you more or less intelligent. Scientists carried out brain scans of 300 kids and made them do tests to find out how bright they were. They found parts of the brain changed size as the kids got older and those whose brains altered the most were the cleverest. Parts of the brain got thicker between the ages of seven and 11, before getting thinner again when the kids reached their mid-teens. One of the scientists said: “Brainy children are not cleverer solely by virtue of having more or less grey matter at any one age.”