einstein's unique brain part 2

New Features Found in Einstein's Brain

April 21, 2009 by Miranda Marquit Enlarge

Albert Einstein had a brain different from the "average" person.

(PhysOrg.com) -- When one thinks of Einstein, it is natural to assume that obviously his brain differed from that of the average person. And, ever since Thomas Harvey, a pathologist in Princeton, removed Einstein's brain upon his 1955 death and documented it, scientists have been studying it. Currently, Einstein's brain is in 240 pieces, mounted on slides. However, measurements and photographs were taken of the brain prior to its dis-assembly, and these photos are pored over every few years by those wishing to unravel the secrets of the brain belonging to one of the geniuses of the 20th Century.
 

In 1999, an anatomical study of Einstein's brain was made. Interestingly, reports Science Now, his brain was smaller than average:
"One parameter that did not explain Einstein's mental prowess, however, was the size of his brain: At 1230 grams, it fell at the low end of average for modern humans."
This meant that it was necessary to study the other intricacies of his brain. If Einstein's overall brain were at the smaller end, perhaps there were other things to find. The 1999 study by a team in Canada found that Einstein's parietal lobes were 15% wider than average. Science Now points out that these lobes are usually connected to spatial and visual cognition, as well as mathematics.

A new study has found even more differences in Einstein's brain. Dean Falk works at Florida State University and has studied the photographs of Einstein's brain in detail. In addition to the parietal lobes, Falk claims to have discovered a pattern of ridges and grooves in those wider lobes that is rare. This rare pattern is thought to have contributed to Einstein's visual thinking when it came to physics.

Another difference Falk found is related to a knob found in the motor cortex. Science Now describes the implications of this knob in the brain:
"[ I ]n other studies, similar "knobs" have been associated with musical ability. (Einstein had played the violin avidly since childhood.)"

The idea is that what made Einstein a genius has more to do with the structure of his brain, than its size. However, it is important to keep in mind that Einstein's brain in its totality can only be studied via photograph and compared to other photographs. And, of course, the brain is a complex and still-mysterious organ. But it may be that we can glean some additional insight from studying the structure of Einstein's brain.
© 2009 PhysOrg.com

einstein's unique brain

By Kenneth Chang
ABCNEWS.com
June 17— Albert Einstein, the unassuming genius of relativity and E=mc², was no swollen head. But his brain — at least one portion of it — really was bigger than what’s in the rest of us.
     In the June 19 issue of the medical journal The Lancet, researchers at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, report that the portion of the brain associated with mathematics was 15 percent wider than average in Einstein. Unique Brain
“We don’t know if every brilliant physicist and mathematician will have this same anatomy.”
Sandra Witelson, neuroscientist
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. 

A 1955 photograph of Albert Einstein's brain. (Witelson/Kigar/Harvey/The Lancet)

     The researchers hypothesize that the partially missing groove might have allowed more neurons in this area to establish connections between each other and work together more easily.
     “That kind of shape was not observed in any one of our brains and is not depicted in any atlas of the human brain,” says Sandra Witelson, the McMaster neuroscientist who led the study.
     “But it shouldn’t be seen as anatomy is destiny,” she adds. “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.” Weighing Intelligence
Other scientists aren’t sure how much size matters in this case, if at all. “I think one should be very cautious in interpreting this finding,” says Dr. Francine Benes, director of the Harvard Brain Bank at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. “To relate this finding to Einstein’s genius, one would have to have a comparison group of geniuses.”
     Still, Benes adds, “It’s quite interesting. I think this observation may prompt investigators to investigate this portion of the brain more closely.”
     Einstein’s brain was removed during an autopsy after he died in April 1955 at age 76. Dr. Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who performed the autopsy, cut the brain into pieces and preserved it in formaldehyde for scientific study.
     The overall size of Einstein’s brain is unremarkable. It actually weighed a third of a pound less than the three-pound average of adult males. In 1985, scientists at University of California, Berkeley reported that portions of Einstein’s brain had higher-than-normal numbers of glial cells, which feed neurons. The Berkeley researchers suggested that the extra glial cells were needed to nourish Einstein’s high-performance neurons, but that finding remained controversial.
Mostly Normal
In the latest study, the McMaster researchers compared autopsy measurements and photographs of Einstein’s brain with the preserved brains of 35 men and 56 women known to be of normal intelligence when they died.
     With the men’s brains, they conducted two separate comparisons — first between Einstein’s brain and those of all the men, and next between his brain and those of the eight men who were similar in age to Einstein when they died.

The parietal lobes, located behind the brain’s frontal lobes, have been linked with various kinds of higher-level thinking, including processing of visual information, mathematics, language and music. A missing groove might have allowed Einstein’s brain to form more connections between neurons in this region. (ABCNEWS.com)

     Einstein’s brain fell in the range of normal for all measurements, except for the portion known as the inferior parietal lobes, located in the middle of the brain. Other experiments have shown the parietal lobes are involved in mathematics, as well as music and processing of visual images
     “The region of the brain that seems to be different in Einstein is the part that would be used in his unusual abilities,” comments John Kaas, a psychology professor at Vanderbilt University. “That makes a stronger argument. If they showed a difference in some other part of brain, I wouldn’t be as impressed.”
     Witelson says the missing groove, known as the sulcus, was likely always absent in that part of Einstein’s brain, rather than shrinking away as a result of his intelligence, because it appears very early in life. Brain Boggler
“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.”
     Follow-up studies could include scanning the brains of living mathematicians and physicists for similar brain features.
     Witelson’s group is yet to report any findings from its examination of the actual tissue from Einstein’s brain. Witelson obtained a sample from Harvey a couple of years ago.
     Which means there will probably be more chapters in this saga of Einstein’s brain. 

doktor baru sampai.

alhamdullilah,
mujurlah kontraktor telekom sudah baiki kabel telefon, kalu tak, terpaksalah pergi menjelajah setiap kedai yang ada wifi.that a relief, thanks to them and now i can continue to do  my work, more faster and more advance than 2 weeks ago~, (lama tuh) also~ continue 'facebooking' ,haha. update blog is really tired you know, nak tulis panjang-panjang pun rasa malas,haha, baca the point jelahkan lebih senang, tak perlu panjang-panjanglah. semua orang baca novel pun tak habis jugak, kalau faham pun baca sinopsis.

bYe,~

my idol when I started to learn

Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. Six weeks later the family moved to Munich, where he later on began his schooling at the Luitpold Gymnasium. Later, they moved to Italy and Albert continued his education at Aarau, Switzerland and in 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss citizenship and, as he was unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 he obtained his doctor's degree.

During his stay at the Patent Office, and in his spare time, he produced much of his remarkable work and in 1908 he was appointed Privatdozent in Berne. In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, returning to Zurich in the following year to fill a similar post. In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton*. He became a United States citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945.

After World War II, Einstein was a leading figure in the World Government Movement, he was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, which he declined, and he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Einstein always appeared to have a clear view of the problems of physics and the determination to solve them. He had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to his goal. He regarded his major achievements as mere stepping-stones for the next advance.

At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his special theory of relativity stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. He dealt with classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum theory: this led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He investigated the thermal properties of light with a low radiation density and his observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light.

In his early days in Berlin, Einstein postulated that the correct interpretation of the special theory of relativity must also furnish a theory of gravitation and in 1916 he published his paper on the general theory of relativity. During this time he also contributed to the problems of the theory of radiation and statistical mechanics.

In the 1920's, Einstein embarked on the construction of unified field theories, although he continued to work on the probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory, and he persevered with this work in America. He contributed to statistical mechanics by his development of the quantum theory of a monatomic gas and he has also accomplished valuable work in connection with atomic transition probabilities and relativistic cosmology.

After his retirement he continued to work towards the unification of the basic concepts of physics, taking the opposite approach, geometrisation, to the majority of physicists.

Einstein's researches are, of course, well chronicled and his more important works include Special Theory of Relativity (1905), Relativity (English translations, 1920 and 1950), General Theory of Relativity (1916), Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement (1926), and The Evolution of Physics (1938). Among his non-scientific works, About Zionism (1930), Why War? (1933), My Philosophy (1934), and Out of My Later Years (1950) are perhaps the most important.

Albert Einstein received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many European and American universities. During the 1920's he lectured in Europe, America and the Far East and he was awarded Fellowships or Memberships of all the leading scientific academies throughout the world. He gained numerous awards in recognition of his work, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1925, and the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1935.

Einstein's gifts inevitably resulted in his dwelling much in intellectual solitude and, for relaxation, music played an important part in his life. He married Mileva Maric in 1903 and they had a daughter and two sons; their marriage was dissolved in 1919 and in the same year he married his cousin, Elsa Löwenthal, who died in 1936. He died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey.

From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

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* Albert Einstein was formally associated with the Institute for Advanced Study located in Princeton, New Jersey.

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life is precious, do not destroy it,

life is life, strive for it.