New look at Einstein’s brain
NOV 16, 2012
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.026538
Nature : More than half a century after Albert Einstein died in 1955, researchers are still studying his unusual brain. Within hours of Einstein’s death, pathologist Thomas Harvey removed his brain and took dozens of black-and-white photographs of the whole and partially dissected organ. Although over the years numerous groups have studied various aspects of it, a team of researchers at Florida State University in Tallahassee has recently analyzed 12 of Harvey’s original photos and compared them with those of 85 brains described in other studies. According to the paper by Dean Falk and colleagues published online today in the journal Brain, “Einstein’s brain has an extraordinary prefrontal cortex,” among other features. That could account for Einstein’s unusual talent for abstract thinking.
© 2012 American Institute of Physics
