However, the research on the brains of many celebrities and geniuses, including Einstein, Descartes, Byron and Gauss, shows that the brains of geniuses are no different from those of prisoners and ordinary people.
Einstein's brain is better than taking a human brain?
In the fields of science, literature, art and politics, a few people have made remarkable achievements. People have never stopped studying the brain. Among them, Einstein's brain is the most studied, but the conclusions are different. One of the conclusions is that Einstein, as a scientific genius, has an extraordinary brain.
American scholar Brian? A detailed description of Beurel's new book Postcards from the Brain Museum: A Probe into the Intellectual Materials of Celebrities is given.
Marion, a neuroscientist at UCLA? Diamond was the first person to compare Einstein's brain with that of ordinary people. She has studied the brains of mice before. She divided the mice into two groups, one in an environment with intellectual stimulation and the other in an environment without stimulation. After a period of time, she found that the brain function of mice living in stimulating environment was better than that of mice living in non-stimulating environment. This conclusion is obtained by calculating neurons (brain cells) in brain slices of two groups of mice.
Einstein's brain is still preserved. Diamond asked Harvey, the preserver, for some samples of brodman 9 and 39 in Einstein's left and right hemispheres. At the same time, the brains of a 64-year-old male deceased in the same area were compared. 1 1 No one died of nervous system diseases, so the brain is comparable.
Diamond used Gorky staining, which was the best technique to display anatomical tissues and cells at that time. Diamond's plan is to count four data of single neuron, two kinds of glial cells (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes) and total glial cells. Then three ratios are established, that is, the ratio of neurons to astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and total glial cells per unit area of the brain.
Diamond compared Einstein's number of neurons and the proportion of glial cells with the control group. Diamond selected 4 samples, so there are 28 possible comparisons (4 counts and 3 ratios) among 7 measured values. However, after observing all the results, Diamond gave up other measurement methods, leaving only the ratio of neurons to glial cells. Diamond believes that it is necessary to include all glial cells in order to obtain statistically significant differences. It turns out that the difference between Einstein's brain and human brain exists only in one Brownian region, that is, 39 regions in the left hemisphere. In this area, Einstein's ratio of brain neurons to glial cells is significantly lower than other neurons.
Einstein's brain seems to be superior to ordinary people. Because glial cells are the nutrition and support cells of neurons, they divide and produce new cells all their lives, but neurons are not. Therefore, there are only two situations that will lead to a decrease in the ratio of neurons to glial cells. One is that neurons die quickly (such as Alzheimer's patients), and the other is that the number of glial cells increases. Diamond's previous discoveries. Adequate nutritional environment will lead to the proliferation of glial cells in mice, thus reducing the ratio of neurons to glial cells. Einstein's brain also has this situation. According to this situation, she thinks this? Explain that glial cells respond to the higher metabolic needs of neurons? .
Einstein's brain is not as good as ordinary people?
Diamond's research results were published in the American Journal of Experimental Neuroscience, No.65438-0985, entitled? Scientists' brains: Einstein? . The news media interpreted this research as Einstein's brain has more glial cells than ordinary people, so it is smarter than ordinary people, or laid the foundation that his brain is a genius.
However, it is followed by different interpretations and criticisms. A famous comment by colleagues of scientists is that if you observe and measure a large number of features for a long time and are highly selective, you can finally find statistical data to support or deny any statement. 1998, Haynes of Pace University published an article in the Journal of Experimental Neuroscience, saying that Diamond's research? There are serious defects, and its conclusions should not be accepted? .
Prior to this, other researchers came to the opposite conclusion. 1992 Kanta of Osaka Institute of Life Sciences in Japan got another result from Diamond's research. According to Diamond's cell count, it is likely that Einstein had some pathological changes in the language-related areas of his brain, which led to his early dyslexia. This is a well-known history. Einstein looked stupid and couldn't speak clearly when he was a child.
In other words, Einstein had neither a super brain nor a genius brain. He may have started his life with a serious brain injury, but he later recovered. Although it is also a kind of reasoning, it has sufficient factual basis and aroused great interest. Because if Einstein's parents knew that Einstein's brain was defective, they would not let him do academic research, but let him work in the patent office.
In addition, Kanter raised several questions about Diamond's research. Who is the control group in Diamond's study? What have these people experienced in the past 30 years as a control group? Diamond's choice of data is incomplete. Why use the ratio instead of the actual number of nerve cells to explain it?
Some important research results have also been published, showing that Einstein's brain is worse than ordinary people. 1996, Britt Anderson of the University of Alabama published a paper in the journal Neuroscience Letters? Changes of Einstein's frontal cortex thickness and neuron density? . The frontal cortex discussed in this paper is Brodman 9. Anderson measured the thickness of Einstein's cerebral cortex in the outer six layers of gray matter, and calculated the number and density of these cells by counting the number of neurons per unit area of the brain.