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From: Stig Agermose <stig.agermose@get2net.dk>
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 01:50:05
Fwd Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 12:40:00 -0400
Subject: Einstein'S Brain Found To Be Anatomically Distinct


Source: AP via the Nado Times,

http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,61011-97084-692696-0,00.html

Stig

***

Einstein's brain found to be anatomically distinct

Copyright ©1999 Nando Media
Copyright ©1999 Associated Press

By EMMA ROSS

LONDON (June 17, 1999 7:01 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -
We always thought something must have made Albert Einstein
smarter than the rest of us. Now, scientists have found that one
part of his brain was indeed physically extraordinary.

In the only study ever conducted of the overall anatomy of
Einstein's brain, scientists at McMaster University in Ontario,
Canada, discovered that the part of the brain thought to be
related to mathematical reasoning - the inferior parietal region
- was 15 percent wider on both sides than normal.

Furthermore, they found that the groove that normally runs from
the front of the brain to the back did not extend all the way in
Einstein's case. That finding could have applications even to
those with more pedestrian levels of intelligence.

"That kind of shape was not observed in any one of our brains
and is not depicted in any atlas of the human brain," said
Sandra Witelson, a neuroscientist who led the study, published
in this week's issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal.

"But it shouldn't be seen as anatomy is destiny," she added. "We
also know that environment has a very important role to play in
learning and brain development. But what this is telling us is
that environment isn't the only factor."

The findings may point to the importance of the inferior
parietal region, Witelson said.

While the differences may be extraordinary between Einstein and
everyone else, there may be more subtle, even microscopic,
differences when the anatomies of the brains of people who don't
fall into the genius category are compared with each other, she
said.

The researchers compared the founder of the theory of
relativity's brain with the preserved brains of 35 men and 56
women known to have normal intelligence when they died.

With the men's brains, they conducted two separate comparisons -
first between Einstein's brain and all the men, and next between
his brain and those of the eight men who were similar in age to
Einstein when they died.

They found that, overall, Einstein's brain was the same weight
and had the same measurements from front to back as all the
other men, which Witelson said confirms the belief of many
scientists that focusing on overall brain size as an indicator
of intelligence is not the way to go.

Witelson theorized that the partial absence of the groove in
Einstein's brain may be the key, because it might have allowed
more neurons in this area to establish connections between each
other and work together more easily.

She said it is likely that the groove, known as the sulcus, was
always absent in that part of Einstein's brain, rather than
shrinking away as a result of his intelligence, because, as one
of the two or three landmarks in the human brain, it appears
very early in life.

"We don't know if every brilliant physicist and mathematician
will have this same anatomy," Witelson said. "It fits and it
makes a compelling story, but it requires further proof."

John Gabrieli, an associate professor of psychology at Stanford
University who was not connected with the study, said the
finding relating to the groove and connections between the
neurons in the brain may be the key.

"We don't have a clue, so anything that is suggested is
interesting," he said. "There must have been something about his
brain that made him so brilliant."

Brilliance of the kind Einstein possessed is so extreme,
however, that although the findings may give a clue to the
neurology of genius, whether they could apply to normal
differences in intelligence is more doubtful, Gabrieli said.

Witelson said the next stage is to scan the brains of living
mathematicians and look for minute differences.

Witelson and her team acquired Einstein's brain after they were
contacted by its keeper, scientist John Harvey, who had read
about the university's brain research.

Harvey was a pathologist working at a small hospital in
Princeton, N.J., when Einstein died in 1955 at the age of 76.
Harvey performed the autopsy, determined Einstein died of
natural causes and took the brain home with him.

Some parts of the brain were given to scientists, but no major
study was ever conducted, until now.


Copyright ©1999 Nando Media
Copyright ©1999 Nando Media