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Brain surgeons -- or rocket scientists, for that matter -- may be no smarter than others, a prospective study suggested.

Neurosurgeons showed significantly higher scores than aerospace engineers in semantic problem solving (difference 0.33, 95% CI 0.13-0.52), reported Aswin Chari, BMBCh, of University College London in England, and co-authors, in the , an annual collection of light-hearted features and original, peer-reviewed research.

Aerospace engineers had significantly higher scores in mental manipulation and attention (difference −0.29, 95% CI −0.48 to −0.09) than brain surgeons.

But when cognitive domain scores of the two professions were compared with the general public, only two differences were significant: neurosurgeons had faster problem-solving speed (mean z score 0.24, 95% CI 0.07-0.41) and slower memory recall speed (mean z score −0.19, 95% CI −0.34 to −0.04), Chari and colleagues reported.

The findings aimed to use cognitive test scores to help settle an age-old argument about which phrase -- "it's not brain surgery" or "it's not rocket science" -- holds the most merit.

"In situations that do not require rapid problem solving, it might be more correct to use the phrase 'it's not brain surgery,'" the researchers wrote.

"It is possible that both neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers are unnecessarily placed on a pedestal and that 'it's a walk in the park' or another phrase unrelated to careers might be more appropriate," they added. "Other specialties might deserve to be on that pedestal, and future work should aim to determine the most deserving profession."

The analysis was based on data from aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons who took the online , which measures aspects of cognition, spanning planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and emotion processing abilities. The 30-minute test does not assess IQ in the classic sense but is intended to differentiate aspects of cognitive ability, Chari and co-authors noted.

Neurosurgery and aerospace engineers were matched for gender, handedness, and years of experience in their specialty. Both cohorts had three times as many men than women. Most aerospace engineers were based in mainland Europe, while most neurosurgeons were in Great Britain. After data cleaning, 401 complete datasets were included in the final analysis from 329 aerospace engineers and 72 neurosurgeons.

The invited viewers to take the Great British Intelligence Test, and results from 18,257 people in the general population were compared against data from neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers. These people represented a subset of the more than who took the test from the BBC Two show, but included all participants who completed the same battery of tests as the engineers and surgeons.

Overall, cognitive profiles of aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons were similar. Neurosurgeons might have had an edge in semantic problem-solving (including rare word definitions and verbal analogies) due to exposure to Latin and Greek etymologies in medical school, Chari and colleagues observed. Mental manipulation and attention -- where aerospace engineers showed higher scores than brain surgeons -- involve skills actively taught in engineering training, they pointed out.

The study examined only one facet of the way the two phrases might be applied, the researchers acknowledged. It was limited in geography and findings don't represent the global range of aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons, they added. Anyone interested can go to the web site to get their own scores, Chari said.

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