Well-connected hemispheres of Einstein’s brain may have sparked brilliance

The left and right hemispheres of Albert Einstein’s brain were unusually well connected to each other and may have contributed to his brilliance, according to a new study conducted in part by Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk.

"This study, more than any other to date, really gets at the ‘inside’ of Einstein’s brain," Falk said. "It provides new information that helps make sense of what is known about the surface of Einstein’s brain."

The study, “The Corpus Callosum of Albert Einstein’s Brain: Another Clue to His High Intelligence,” was published in the journal Brain. Lead author Weiwei Men of East China Normal University’s Department of Physics developed a new technique to conduct the study, which is the first to detail Einstein’s corpus callosum, the brain’s largest bundle of fibers that connects the two cerebral hemispheres and facilitates interhemispheric communication.

"This technique should be of interest to other researchers who study the brain’s all-important internal connectivity," Falk said.

Men’s technique measures and color-codes the varying thicknesses of subdivisions of the corpus callosum along its length, where nerves cross from one side of the brain to the other. These thicknesses indicate the number of nerves that cross and therefore how “connected” the two sides of the brain are in particular regions, which facilitate different functions depending on where the fibers cross along the length. For example, movement of the hands is represented toward the front and mental arithmetic along the back.

In particular, this new technique permitted registration and comparison of Einstein’s measurements with those of two samples — one of 15 elderly men and one of 52 men Einstein’s age in 1905. During his so-called “miracle year” at 26 years old, Einstein published four articles that contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed the world’s views about space, time, mass and energy.

The research team’s findings show that Einstein had more extensive connections between certain parts of his cerebral hemispheres compared to both younger and older control groups.

The research of Einstein’s corpus callosum was initiated by Men, who requested the high-resolution photographs that Falk and other researchers published in 2012 of the inside surfaces of the two halves of Einstein’s brain. In addition to Men, the current research team included Falk, who served as second author; Tao Sun of the Washington University School of Medicine; and, from East China Normal University’s Department of Physics, Weibo Chen, Jianqi Li, Dazhi Yin, Lili Zang and Mingxia Fan.

(Image: National Museum of Health and Medicine)

Does Einstein’s brain hold the secret to his genius?

Albert Einstein’s brain fascinates scientists and the general public alike, because it may provide clues to the neurological basis of his extraordinary intellectual abilities. The latest study of the great physicist’s grey matter was published last month. The researchers analyzed previously unpublished photographs of the great physicist’s cerebral cortex, and claim to have identified unusual, and hitherto unknown, features. But some are sceptical about how the findings have been interpreted.

Shortly after Einstein’s death on 18th April, 1955, pathologist Thomas Harvey removed his brain and dissected it into 240 blocks, taking dozens of photographs while he did so. He then sent some of the tissue samples and photographs to a handful of researchers, and eventually, a small number of studies emerged. The early ones showed that Einstein’s brain was, in fact, slightly smaller, and weighed about 200 grams less, than average, but subsequent investigations revealed several unusual features, which were, it was claimed, somehow related to his visuo-spatial skills.

For the new study, anthropologist Dean Falk of Florida State University and her colleagues analyzed 14 of the’s photographs from the museum collection, which together reveal the entire surface of Einstein’s cerebral cortex for the first time, enabling the researchers to examine the pattern of grooves and ridges and in detail and compare them to those seen in other brains.

"The new photographs reveal parts of Einstein’s brain that have not previously been seen in published images," says Falk. "We have identified most of the external details of his cerebral cortex, [and] the complexity and pattern of convolutions on certain parts of Einstein’s cerebral cortex is striking and unusual in comparison to brains from normal individuals."

"This is especially noticeable in the prefrontal cortex, which is important for advanced cognition, the parietal lobes, which are important for spatial and arithmetic reasoning, and the visual cortex. The primary sensory and motor cortices are also extraordinarily expanded in certain parts."

Some argue that any conclusions drawn from such findings could be meaningless. “Studying Einstein’s brain is like studying the writings of Nostradamus,” says Chris Chambers, a cognitive neuroscientist at Cardiff University. “You can read them backwards, forward, or even sideways, and draw whatever conclusions you like.”

"We inevitably end up committing logical fallacies of reverse inference and faulty generalisation: that certain parts of Einstein’s brain may look a bit different to other brains, and that this explains his abilities. But the differences might have no functional importance whatsoever, and this makes any kind of conclusion extremely weak."

Chambers adds that there is enormous variability in human brain structure, and that this poses another problem when trying to interpret such findings. “We’re dealing with just one brain and this makes it impossible to draw any firm conclusions about the population at large. Human brains come in all shapes and sizes and there is no known relationship to cognition. Very few people have the ‘normal’ brain we see in textbooks, and neither did Einstein.”

Clinical neurologist Frederick Lepore, a co-author of the new study, made similar arguments in 2001, and in an interview published online earlier this month, he is quoted as saying that the new study confirms Einstein’s brain “was very different,” but that “we face an insurmountable explanatory gap if we attempt to use our neuroanatomical findings to account for the mind that envisioned the curvature of the universe.”

He goes on to say that the next logical step would be to try to generate Einstein’s connectome, a comprehensive map of the connections in his brain, and that a comparison of the brain to those of other geniuses is another possible avenue of research.

Falk believes that the photographs could help researchers to map Einstein’s connectome. “[We have published]… the ‘roadmap’ that provides a key between these areas and recently emerged histological slides of Einstein’s brain, which may allow scientists to study its internal connectivity. These photographs should become more meaningful in the future, as more is learned about the functions of various regions.”