Albert Einstein'sBrain

It doesn't take anEinstein to recognize that Albert Einstein's brain was very different fromyours and mine.The gray matter housed inside that shaggy head managed to

revolutionize ourconcepts of time,space,motion一the very foundations of physical reality一notjust once but several times during his astonishing career. Yet while there

clearly had to besomething remarkable about Einstein's brain,the pathologist who removed it fromthe great physicist's skull after his death reported that the organ was,to all

appearances,wellwithin the normal range一nobigger or heavier than anyone else's.

2.But a new analysisof Einstein's brain by Canadian scientists,reported in the current Lancet,reveals that it has some distinctive physical characteristics after all. Aportion of

the brain thatgoverns mathematical ability and spatial reasoning一two key ingredients to the sort ofthinking Einstein did best一was significantly largerthan average and

may also have hadmore interconnections among its cells,which could have allowed them to worktogether more effectively.

3.In 1996,Harvey gave much of hisdata and a significant fraction of the tissue itself to Dr. Sandra Witelson,aneuroscientist who maintains a"brain bank"at McMaster for

comparative studiesof brain structure and function.These normal,undiseased brains,willed toscience by people whose intelligence had been carefully measured before death,

gave Witelson asolid set of benchmarks against which to measure the seat of Einstein'sbrilliant thoughts.Not only was Einstein's inferior parietal region unusually bulkythe

scientists found,buta feature called the Sylvian fissure was much smaller than average.Without thisgroove that normally slices through the tissue,the brain cells were packed

closetogether,permitting more interconnections一which in principle can permit more cross-referencing of informationand idea, leading to great leaps of insight.

4.That's theidea,anyway.But while it's quite plausible according to current neurologicaltheory,that doesn't necessarily,make it true.We know Einstein was a genius,andwe

now know that hisbrain was physically different from the average.But none of this proves acause-and-effect relationship."What you really need,"says McLean's Benes,"is to

look at the brainsof a number of mathematical geniuses to see if the same abnormalities arepresent."

5.Even if theyare,it's possible that the bulked一up brains are a result of strenuous mental exercise,not an inherentfeature that makes genius possible.Bottom linE.we still don't

know whetherEinstein was born with an extraordinary mind or whether he earned it,onebrilliant idea at a time.Einstein's brain________.

A.that doesn'tnecessarily make it true

B.the cells ofmathematics

C.was born with anextraordinary mind or he earned it

D.allow the cellswork together more effectively

E.is the same as theaverages in size and weight