爱因斯坦大脑非同寻常的特点可能解释了他非凡的认知能力。据佛罗里达州立大学进化论人类学家迪恩•福尔克带头进行的一项新研究发现，爱因斯坦的大脑中的某些部分与大多数人不一样，他非凡的认知能力可能与此有关。
功能成像技术揭示爱因斯坦大脑皮层的独特之处
福尔克和几位同仁一起，通过对14张近期发现的照片进行仔细研究，首次描绘了爱因斯坦的整个大脑皮层。这些研究人员把爱因斯坦的大脑与85位“正常人”的大脑进行比较，利用现今的功能成像技术，解释了爱因斯坦大脑皮层非同寻常的特点。
福尔克说：“尽管爱因斯坦的大脑的整体大小和不对称形状与常人无异，但其前额皮层、体觉皮层、初级运动皮层、顶骨皮层、太阳穴皮层以及枕骨皮层都与众不同。这可能为他的视觉空间和计算能力提供了神经学上的支撑。”
这项研究成果将发表在11月16日的《脑》期刊上。
爱因斯坦1955年去世后，在征得其家人的允许后，他的大脑被取下，并从多个角度拍照。
而且，他的大脑被分割成了240片切片，用于制作组织学幻灯片。不幸的是，大部分照片、脑切片和幻灯片从公众的视线中消失了55年之久。此次研究人员利用的14张照片现由国家卫生与医学博物馆保存。
这项研究报告还公布了爱因斯坦的大脑的“路线图”，这是1955年托马斯•哈维医生制作的，说明了240片被分解的组织切片的位置。
The cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein: a description and preliminary analysis of unpublished photographs
Dean Falk,Frederick E. Lepore and Adrianne Noe
Upon his death in 1955, Albert Einstein’s brain was removed, fixed and photographed from multiple angles. It was then sectioned into 240 blocks, and histological slides were prepared. At the time, a roadmap was drawn that illustrates the location within the brain of each block and its associated slides. Here we describe the external gross neuroanatomy of Einstein’s entire cerebral cortex from 14 recently discovered photographs, most of which were taken from unconventional angles. Two of the photographs reveal sulcal patterns of the medial surfaces of the hemispheres, and another shows the neuroanatomy of the right (exposed) insula. Most of Einstein’s sulci are identified, and sulcal patterns in various parts of the brain are compared with those of 85 human brains that have been described in the literature. To the extent currently possible, unusual features of Einstein’s brain are tentatively interpreted in light of what is known about the evolution of higher cognitive processes in humans. As an aid to future investigators, these (and other) features are correlated with blocks on the roadmap (and therefore histological slides). Einstein’s brain has an extraordinary prefrontal cortex, which may have contributed to the neurological substrates for some of his remarkable cognitive abilities. The primary somatosensory and motor cortices near the regions that typically represent face and tongue are greatly expanded in the left hemisphere. Einstein’s parietal lobes are also unusual and may have provided some of the neurological underpinnings for his visuospatial and mathematical skills, as others have hypothesized. Einstein’s brain has typical frontal and occipital shape asymmetries (petalias) and grossly asymmetrical inferior and superior parietal lobules. Contrary to the literature, Einstein’s brain is not spherical, does not lack parietal opercula and has non-confluent Sylvian and inferior postcentral sulci.
