Reporter and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Oldest picture
http://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~jr/physpiceinstein.html
my favorite picture of Albert Eistein
http://www.albert-einstein.org/
A new study on the neuroanatomy of Albert Einstein was
Released: 11/15/2012 10:00 AM EST
Embargo expired: 11/15/2012 7:00 PM EST
Source: Florida State University
Portions of Albert Einstein’s brain have been found to be unlike those of most people and could be related to his extraordinary cognitive abilities, according to a new study led by Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk.
Brain
Dean Falk, Florida State University professor of anthropology
Uncommon Features of Einstein’s Brain Might Explain His Remarkable Cognitive Abilities
Released: 11/15/2012 10:00 AM EST
Embargo expired: 11/15/2012 7:00 PM EST
Source: Florida State University
Newswise — TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ⎯ Portions of Albert Einstein’s brain have been found to be unlike those of most people and could be related to his extraordinary cognitive abilities, according to a new study led by Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk.
Falk, along with colleagues Frederick E. Lepore of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Adrianne Noe, director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, describe for the first time the entire cerebral cortex of Einstein’s brain from an examination of 14 recently discovered photographs. The researchers compared Einstein’s brain to 85 “normal” human brains and, in light of current functional imaging studies, interpreted its unusual features.
“Although the overall size and asymmetrical shape of Einstein’s brain were normal, the prefrontal, somatosensory, primary motor, parietal, temporal and occipital cortices were extraordinary,” said Falk, the Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology at Florida State. “These may have provided the neurological underpinnings for some of his visuospatial and mathematical abilities, for instance.”
The study, “The Cerebral Cortex of Albert Einstein: A Description and Preliminary Analysis of Unpublished Photographs,” will be published Nov. 16 in the journal Brain.
Upon Einstein’s death in 1955, his brain was removed and photographed from multiple angles with the permission of his family. Furthermore, it was sectioned into 240 blocks from which histological slides were prepared. Unfortunately, a great majority of the photographs, blocks and slides were lost from public sight for more than 55 years. The 14 photographs used by the researchers now are held by the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
The paper also publishes the “roadmap” to Einstein’s brain prepared in 1955 by Dr. Thomas Harvey to illustrate the locations within Einstein’s previously whole brain of 240 dissected blocks of tissue, which provides a key to locating the origins within the brain of the newly emerged histological slides.
SOURCE:
Albert Einstein died 50 years ago Monday. While that day marked the end of his life, it was only the beginning of a long, strange journey for his brain.
More NPR Stories on Einstein
Thomas Harvey, a doctor at the hospital where Einstein died, removed the famous scientist’s brain and kept it with him over the next four decades. Harvey wanted to know what made Einstein a genius.
As Brian Burrell writes in his new book Postcards from the Brain Museum, Harvey wasn’t alone.
Scientists have long sought to understand the nature of genius and before computers and imaging technology, they had few options other than studying the actual brain.
Burrell discusses the long, strange journey of Einstein’s brain.
The Long, Strange Journey of Einstein’s Brain
Albert Einstein’s Brain May Provide Clues To His Genius, Study Says
By Dominique Mosbergen Posted: 11/17/2012 12:08 am EST Updated: 11/19/2012 6:26 pm EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/17/albert-einstein-brain-study-genius_n_2144865.html
ORIGINAL PAPER in BRAIN, A JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, OCCASIONAL PAPER – November 16, 2012
The cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein: a description and preliminary analysis of unpublished
photographs
http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/brainj/press_releases/prpaper.pdf
Paper Authors’ Affiliations:
Dean Falk,1,2 Frederick E. Lepore3,4 and Adrianne Noe5
1 Department of Anthropology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-7772, USA
2 School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, NM 87505, USA
3 Department of Neurology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
4 Department of Ophthalmology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
5 National Museum of Health and Medicine, Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA
Correspondence to:
Dean Falk,
School for Advanced Research,
660 Garcia Street,
Santa Fe, NM 87505, USA
E-mail: dfalk@fsu.edu or falk@sarsf.org
Summary and conclusions
Quote from Brain, 2012, November 16, 2012, green color added
Einstein’s brain is of unexceptional size and its combination of a relatively wide and forward-projecting right frontal lobe with a relatively wide and posteriorly protruding left occipital lobe is the most prevalent pattern seen in right-handed adult males.
We have identified the sulci that delimit expansions of cortex (gyri or convolutions) on the external surfaces of all of the lobes of the brain and on the medial surfaces of both hemispheres. The morphology 25 in some parts of Einstein’s cerebral cortex is highly unusual compared with 25 (Ono et al., 1990) and 60 (Connolly, 1950) human brains for which sulcal patterns have been thoroughly described. To the extent possible, the blocks of brain from particularly interesting areas are identified on the ‘roadmap’ that was prepared when Einstein’s brain was sectioned, as a guide for researchers who may wish to explore the histological correlates of Einstein’s gross cortical morphology.
Contrary to earlier reports, newly available photographs reveal that Einstein’s brain is not spherical in shape. The surface area of Einstein’s inferior parietal lobule is larger on the left than the right side, whereas that of his superior parietal lobule appears markedly larger in the right hemisphere. The photographs also suggest that the primary somatosensory and motor cortices representing the face and tongue are differentially expanded in the left hemisphere, that the posterior ascending limb of the Sylvian fissure is separate from (rather than confluent with) the postcentral inferior sulcus,and that parietal opercula are present. Nevertheless, our findings are concordant with the earlier suggestion that unusual morphology in Einstein’s parietal lobes may have provided neurological substrates for his visuospatial and mathematical abilities (Witelson et al., 1999a, b).
Our results also suggest that Einstein had relatively expanded prefrontal cortices, which may have provided underpinnings for some of his extraordinary cognitive abilities, including his productive use of thought experiments. From an evolutionary perspective, the specific parts of Einstein’s prefrontal cortex that appear to be differentially expanded are of interest because recent findings indicate that these same areas increased differentially in size and became neurologically reorganized at microanatomical levels during hominin evolution in association with the emergence of higher cognitive abilities (Semendeferi et al., 2011).
It would be interesting therefore to investigate the histological correlates of these (as well as parietal) regions of Einstein’s brain from the newly available slides. We hope that future research on comparative primate neuroanatomy, paleoneurology and functional neuroanatomy will provide insight about some of the unusually convoluted parts of Einstein’s brain that we have described with little, if any, interpretation (e.g. the external neuroanatomy of the occipital lobes, posterolateral temporal cortex, and inferior temporal gyri).
Figure 12 The remainder of the original ‘road map’ to the 240 blocks sectioned from Einstein’s brain. A–D correspond with Fig. 8.
The figure is reproduced with permission from the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
| Brain 2012: Page 22 of 24 D. Falk et al.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the estate of Thomas S. Harvey, MD, for
donating the materials that form the basis for this article to the
National Museum of Health and Medicine, Elizabeth Lockett and
5 Emily Wilson for help in accessing materials, and Jessica Calzada
for preparation of figures. Kurt Rockenstein is thanked for extensive
technical support. We also received help from Eric Boyle, Tim
Clarke, Jr., Laura Cutter, Elizabeth Eubanks, Albert Galaburda, Lois
Hawkes, Sam Huckaba and Micah Vandegrift. The National
Museum of Health and Medicine is acknowledged for permission
to reproduce the 12 images that appear in this article. The views
expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official
policy or position of the Department of Defense or the United
States Government.
Individuals who are interested in studying the newly emerged
Harvey Collection should contact medicalmuseum@amedd
.army.mil.
Funding
Publication costs were provided by the College of Arts and
20 Sciences at Florida State University, and travel support for DF
was provided by the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe,
New Mexico.
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