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- LONDON - 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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.
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- "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."
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- The findings may point to the importance
of the inferior parietal region, Witelson said.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- Witelson said the next stage is to scan
the brains of living mathematicians and look for minute differences.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Some parts of the brain were given to
scientists, but no major study was ever conducted, until now.
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- http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,61011-97084-692696-0,00.html
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