Neurobiological and Behavioral Signatures of Intelligence-Related Cognitive Processes: Evidence from a Transgenic Alzheimer Model and Modulation by Rubus fruticosus Bioactives

Understanding human intelligence requires integrating cognitive theories with the neurobiological architectures that sustain reasoning, working memory, information updating, and adaptive learning. Contemporary evidence positions intelligence as an emergent property of coordinated neural systems, including the prefrontal cortex, central to executive control and working memory, the parietal cortex, which supports abstract problem-solving, visuospatial computations, and mathematical reasoning, and the hippocampus, which enables relational encoding and flexible memory retrieval. Large-scale network connectivity further underpins efficient information processing, linking these regions into a dynamic architecture of intelligent behavior.

To illustrate how these mechanisms manifest under pathological conditions, we examined intelligence-related cognitive processes in the 5xFAD transgenic model of Alzheimer’s disease, characterized by early impairments in mnemonic integration, attentional regulation, and cognitive flexibility. Six bioactive extracts derived from Rubus fruticosus were administered via oral gavage for seven days and prior to behavioral testing. Cognitive performance was assessed using validated animal analogues of core components of fluid intelligence: the Radial Arm Maze for working and reference memory, Y-Maze spontaneous alternation for spatial updating and cognitive flexibility, Novel Object Recognition for encoding efficiency, and Open Field-based metrics for exploratory attention. Galantamine served as the positive control.

Extract-specific enhancements were observed across working memory accuracy, alternation behavior, and recognition indices, with several compounds approaching or surpassing galantamine’s performance. Preliminary neurobiological analyses suggest reductions in amyloid burden and inflammatory markers, pointing toward synaptic and circuit-level mechanisms supporting cognitive resilience.

By bridging neurobiological theory with behavioral evidence from a transgenic model, this contribution refines our understanding of how core cognitive processes underlying intelligence deteriorate and may be partially restored under neurodegenerative conditions. These findings position Rubus fruticosus bioactives as promising modulators of intelligence-related cognitive architecture.