Region Of Einstein's Brain Was 15% Larger Than Average

Scientists at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON, Canada) have compared Albert Einstein's brain to the brains of 35 men and 56 women. They found that although the overall size and weight of Einstein's brain were average, the inferior parietal region and the sulcus exhibited marked differences from average brains.

Differences In Einstein's Brain
Methodology And Results

Differences In Einstein's Brain (Back to Top)
The McMaster research ream discovered that the inferior parietal region of Einstein's brain was 15% wider on both sides than normal. This region is thought to be related to mathematical reasoning.

In addition to this, the groove that normally runs from the anterior to the posterior of the brain (called the sulcus) did not extend as far in Einstein's brain as it does in the brains of most people. According to Sandra Witelson, the neuroscientist who led the study, the partial absence of the groove in Einstein's brain may have allowed more neurons in this area to establish connections between each other.

Methodology And Results (Back to Top)
Witelson and her team acquired Einstein's brain after they were contacted by its keeper, scientist Thomas Harvey, who had read about the university's brain research. Harvey was a pathologist working at a small hospital in Princeton, NJ 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 conducted until now, according to the Associated Press.

During her study, Witelson compared Einstein's brain with the preserved brains of 35 men and 56 women who were known to have normal intelligence when they died. With the men's brains, her team conducted two separate comparisons. First they compared Einstein's brain with the brains of all 35 men. Then they compared Einstein's brain with the brains of the eight men who were similar in age to Einstein when they died.

The researchers found that, overall, Einstein's brain was the same weight and had the same measurements from front to back as the brains of all of the other men. Witelson says that this confirms the common belief among scientists that overall brain size is not the only indicator of intelligence.

Because disparities were found in Einstein's inferior parietal region and sulcus, however, Witelson says her research shows that physiology plays at least a partial role in intelligence. The environment also plays a strong role in learning and brain development, she says.

Witelson says that she hopes her findings will provide insight into intelligence in the general population by highlighting the importance of the inferior parietal region. Subtle, even microscopic, differences may exist in this brain region in average people, impacting their intelligence, she says. Other researchers do not believe that a connection can be drawn between Einstein's brain and the brains of average people.

During the next phase of her research, Witelson says that she will scan the brains of living mathematicians and search for minute differences in their inferior parietal regions.

Witelson's research was published in the June 14, 1999, issue of The Lancet.

For more information, call Witelson at McMaster University at 905-521-2100.