Albert Einstein's brain

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File:Albert Einstein 1947a.jpg
Einstein's famous brain was preserved after his death, but this was not revealed until 1978.

The brain of Albert Einstein has often been a subject of research and speculation. Einstein's brain, removed shortly after the death of the famous physicist, has attracted attention because of his reputation for being one of the foremost geniuses of the 20th century, and apparent regularities or irregularities in the brain have been used to either prove or disprove various notions about correlations in neuroanatomy with general or mathematical intelligence.

Contents

History

Whether Einstein's brain was removed and preserved after his death in 1955 with his permission is a matter of dispute. Ronald Clark's 1971 biography of Einstein said that "he had insisted that his brain should be used for research and that he be cremated", but more recent research has suggested that this may not be true at all, and that the brain was removed and preserved without either Einstein's immediate permission or the permission of his close relatives. It was the only part of his body not to be cremated. Einstein's brain was removed and preserved by Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Einstein. He claimed he hoped that cytoarchitectonics would reveal useful information. [1] Harvey photographed the brain from many angles. He then dissected it and encased the segments in a plastic-like material called celloidin. [2] Harvey may also have removed Einstein's eyes as well, and gave them to Henry Abrams. [3][4] He was apparently fired from his position at Princeton University shortly thereafter for refusing to relinquish the organs. Preserving the brains of geniuses was not then a new phenomena�another famous brain to be preserved and discussed in a similar manner was that of the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss almost a hundred years earlier. Nevertheless, when Einstein's brain was rediscovered in 1978 after being stored in a cider box for over 20 years it aroused considerable popular and scientific attention.

Preservation and study

File:Einstein's brain.jpg
A photograph of Einstein's brain.
File:Lateral sulcus.png
The Lateral sulcus (Sylvian fissure) in a normal brain. In Einstein's brain, this was absent or truncated.

Einstein's brain was preserved by Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Einstein. Harvey found nothing unusual with his brain, which is of average size. However, in 1999, further analysis by a team at McMaster University revealed that Einstein's parietal operculum region was missing. The operculum is part of the inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe in the brain. One famous part of the operculum is Broca's area which plays an important role in speech production. (see below for discussion relating to Einstein's difficulties with language). To compensate, the inferior parietal lobe was 15 percent wider than normal [5]. The inferior parietal region is responsible for mathematical thought, visuospatial cognition, and imagery of movement. Einstein's brain also contained 73 percent more glial cells than the average brain.

?A post-mortem study of Einstein?s brain may provide clues as to the cerebral processes underlying genius (Witelson et al 1999). There was significant enlargement of the gyri comprising the parietal association cortices, suggesting variation at some early stage of cerebral ontogeny. The authors conclude that this may reflect an extraordinarily large expanse of highly integrated cortex within a functional network ? a notion consistent with Cajal?s speculation that variation in axonal connectivity may be a neuronal correlate of intelligence (Cajal 1989).? [6]

In the 1980s, University of California, Berkeley professor Marion C. Diamond persuaded Thomas Harvey to give her samples of Einstein�s brain. She compared the ratio of glial cells in Einstein�s brain with that in the preserved brains of 11 men. Her laboratory made thin sections of Einstein�s brain, each 6 micrometers thick. They then used a microscope to count the cells. Einstein�s brain had more glial cells relative to neurons in all areas studied, but the difference was statistically significant only in the left inferior parietal area. This area is part of the association cortex, regions of the brain responsible for incorporating and synthesizing information from multiple other brain regions. Diamond admits a limitation in her study is that she had only one Einstein to compare with 11 normal men. S. S. Kantha of the Osaka BioScience Institute in Japan criticized Diamond�s study, as did Terence Hines of Pace University. [7]

The Lateral sulcus (also called the Sylvian fissure) was partially absent from Einstein's brain. Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario believe this may have enabled neurons in this part of his brain to communicate better. Einstein himself claimed that he thought through images rather than verbally. As of now this is unproven. [8] [9]

It appears that in normal brains the Sylvian fissure is involved in processing language.'"Cortical areas that may be implicated in impaired language functioning include the Sylvian fissure." (Leonard, 2001). Einstein did not start talking until he was three and he frequently repeated sentences obsessively up to the age of seven. As an adult his lectures were notoriously confusing. Further abnormalities in the Sylvian fissure could possibly be associated with autism. [10]

There has been discussion that Albert Einstein might have been autistic though there is no conclusive proof of this. (See people speculated to have been autistic).

Possible Experiments

Autistic savants or mental calculators with exceptional mathematical or computational ability could be given brain scans to see if their brains are like Einstein�s. Physicists and mathematicians generally are inclined to be introverted though most are within the normal range. Physics and mathematics students, considered brilliant by their tutors could be given brain scans and their scans could be compared to those of less brilliant physics and mathematics students. The brain scans of brilliant physics and mathematics students could be compared to those of social science students, or other students who are more likely to be extroverted or to scans of the general public.

Sources


References

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