Albert Einstein's brain
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The brain of Albert Einstein has often been a subject of research and speculation. Einstein's brain was removed within 7 hours of his death. The brain has attracted attention because of Einstein's reputation for being one of the foremost geniuses of the 20th century, and apparent regularities or irregularities in the brain have been used to support various ideas about correlations in neuroanatomy with general or mathematical intelligence.
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[edit] Einsteins brain
[edit] Disputed consent
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[citation needed]. Hans Albert Einstein, the physicist’s son, agreed to the removal after the event but insisted that his father’s brain should be used only for scientific research to be published in scientific journals of high standing.[1]
Nevertheless, when Einstein's brain was rediscovered in 1978 after being stored in mason jars within a cider box for over 20 years, it aroused considerable popular and scientific attention.
[edit] Preservation of Einstein's brain
Einstein's brain was removed, weighed and preserved by Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Einstein. He claimed he hoped that cytoarchitectonics would reveal useful information. [2] Harvey injected 10% formalin through the internal carotid arteries and afterwards suspended the intact brain in 10% formalin. Harvey photographed the brain from many angles. He then dissected it into roughly 240 blocks of about 10cm cubed each and encased the segments in a plastic-like material called celloidin. [3][4] Harvey may also have removed Einstein's eyes, and given them to Henry Abrams. [5] He was apparently fired from his position at Princeton University shortly thereafter for refusing to relinquish the organs.
[edit] The brains of other geniuses
Preserving the brains of geniuses was not a new phenomenon—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. His brain was studied by Robert Wagner who found its weight to be 1,492 grams and the cerebral area equal to 219,588 square centimetres. Also found were highly developed convolutions, which was suggested as the explanation of his genius (Dunnington, 1927).
[edit] Other famous brains
Other famous brains that were removed and studied include that of Vladimir Lenin (see Lenin's brain study) and the Native American, Ishi.
[edit] Scientific studies
Harvey found nothing unusual with Einstein’s brain, which is of average size.
[edit] Study by the team at McMaster University
However, in 1999, further analysis by a team at McMaster University in Ontario 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. The inferior frontal gyrus borders the lateral sulcus (Sylvian fissure) below. The Sylvian fissure was partially absent from Einstein's brain. Researchers at McMaster University believe this may have enabled neurons in this part of his brain to communicate better. "This unusual brain anatomy…(the missing part of the Sylvian fissure)… may explain why Einstein thought the way he did," said Professor Sandra Witelson who led the research published in the Lancet. Einstein himself claimed that he thought through images rather than verbally. As of now this is unproven. Professor Laurie Hall of Cambridge University says, "To say there is a definite link is one bridge too far, at the moment. So far the case isn't proven. But magnetic resonance and other new technologies are allowing us to start to probe those very questions." [6]
Scientists are currently interested in the possibility that physical differences in brain structure could determine different abilities. [7] [8]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. [9] 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.
[edit] Study by the team of Marion C. Diamond
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. [10]
Diamond and Joseph Altman (then of Purdue University) had already both discovered that rats with enriched environments developed more glial cells for each neuron. Rats in impoverished environments had fewer glial cells relative for each neuron. [11] A lifetime studying difficult mathematical and physical problems may have enriched Einstein’s environment. Other useful studies on Einstein's brain have shown that it is considerably more dense than other average brains of equal size.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
- Relics: Einstein's Brain, a 1994 documentary by Kevin Hull
[edit] References
[edit] Historical issues
- "The Long, Strange Journey of Einstein's Brain", NPR special
- "I Found Einstein's Brain"
- The Whereabouts of Dr. Einstein's Brain
- "Is Einstein's brain kept in a bottle in a small-town doctor's office near Kansas City?" from The Straight Dope
- "Doctor kept Einstein's brain in jar 43 years"
- Neuroscience for Kids - Einstein's Brain