That Neuroscience Guy - Neuroscience Bites - Einstein's Brain

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

In today's Neurosciene Bite, we discuss what might have made Albert Einstein's brain different from the average person. 

Hi, my name is Olof Krogolsen, and I'm a neuroscientist at the University of Victoria. And in my spare time, I'm that neuroscience guy. Welcome to another Neuroscience Byte. Well, in the last episode, we were talking about neuroscience myths. And one of the myths that I didn't discuss that's out there that I thought would make a pretty cool bite is Einstein's brain. Okay, we all know that Einstein was this incredible thinker, a genius who came up with relativity and all of these concepts that changed the way we think about the way the world and the universe works. But what about his brain?

and the universe works. But what about his brain? The myth is that his brain was bigger than other brains. He had this massive brain relative to others. And that's simply not true. The reality is there's a lot of debate about what is going on or what Einstein's brain was like and why it was different. Interestingly enough, one of the results about Einstein's brain was like and why it was different. Interestingly enough, one of the results about Einstein's brain that came from an autopsy basically believed that a part of the inferior

frontal gyrus, it's in the frontal lobe, but the brain just wasn't there. So that part of the brain wasn't developed and wasn't there. And the theory that was put forth is that this unusual bit of anatomy might have allowed parts of Einstein's brain to communicate better. All right. So as opposed to being larger, one theory is that part of the brain was missing and that allowed the brain to communicate better. But there's some debate about that finding. Another one that came up is that Einstein's brain had more glial cells than other brains. Glial cells are the cells that surround neurons, and they basically participate in neurotransmission. They help make up myelin. They provide nutrition to neurons. So they're supporting brain function. And the idea is with more glial cells, Einstein's brain could have functioned more efficiently.

But again, that has been debated and called into question. Another research group looked at Einstein's hippocampus, which we know supports memory formation, amongst other things. And that study found that there were more, the neurons in the, sorry, there weren't more, but the neurons in the left hippocampus were larger than usual. And that might have supported better neural function. And yet another study found that there was a stronger connection between the two hemispheres of the brain and Einstein. There was a greater density of neurons in the corpus callosum.

That's the structure that allows the left side of the brain or the right side of the brain to communicate. But again, that evidence is being debated. And the reason a lot of it's being debated is all of our brains are different. So if you look around and you, you know, if you're out and about, you'll see people have different heights, different weights, different skin colors, different hair, and our brains are all different too. So was Einstein's brain really that different? And one of the researchers that's really made this case is we have what's called a publication bias.

We're more likely to publish positive results. So papers that show that Einstein's brain was different than others, whereas if your study shows that his brain was the same, it's less likely to get published. So the myth is that Einstein's brain was just larger, published so the myth is that einstein's brain was just larger and that's simply not true but there are these hints that his brain was different in some ways possibly missing a bit that promoted communication glial cells more glial cells larger neurons in the hippocampus and a stronger connection between the hemispheres but not a larger larger brain. And those studies have all been questioned, so they might not even be true. And it might just be that Einstein was someone who was an incredible thinker, but his brain was actually not that different than you or I.

Anyway, don't forget the website, thatneuroscienceguy.com, links to Etsy and Patreon. There is X, of course, at that Neuro Sci Guy. You can DM me some ideas. This one came from one of you, the listeners, and of course, the podcast itself. Please subscribe. It really helps. My name is Olive Krigolson, and I'm that neuroscience guy. I'll see you soon.