Researchers considered five aspects of ‘braininess’ –  memory, processing speed, flexibility, attention, and problem solving – but we think the Midwest has a leg up on a few others.

According to The Atlantic Monthly’s ‘Cities’ site, the Eau Claire-La Crosse area (which we’re still not sure is really an area, but we’ll take it) is the 23rd brainiest in the United States. The findings are generated by a cognitive training and tracking software called Lumosity which covers over 20 million users. The researchers tracked how well individuals did in memory, processing speed, flexibility, attention, and problem solving then mapped them across the U.S. of A.

Charlottesville, Virginia comes in at the top and the Eau Claire-of-the-south, Madison came in fourth overall. The article notes that college towns tend to populate the list, but that the college students certainly don’t make up all the findings. In fact, it found that having a university in a city improves the scores of the entire population, including non-students, living there. This isn’t the first time The Atlantic has ranked Eau Claire – last year the city was dubbed one of the top indie music cities in the U.S., based on hit singles per capita.