Einstein's brain was photographed from several angles after his death (Photo : Flickr: mansionwb)
Albert Einstein was a testament to the power of the human mind, and now scientists believe they have discovered why.
In a study published in the journal Brain, Florida State evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk asserts that "although the overall size and asymmetrical shape of Einstein's brain were normal. The prefrontal, somatosensory, primary motor, parietal, temporal, and occipital cortices were extraordinary.These may have provided the neurological underpinnings for some of his visuospatial and mathematical abilities, for instance."
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The professor's research is based off of photographs of the scientists' brain which were taken in 1955 shortly after Einstein's death. After the organ was captured on camera, it was separated into 240 different parts and sent to the University Medical Center in Princeton, N.J. The researchers compared Einstein's brain to 85 other human brains to determine any peculiarities.
Falk writes, "Einstein's brain has an extraordinary prefrontal cortex, which may have contributed to...some of his remarkable cognitive abilities.
Interestingly, the photographs of the brain were lost for decades until the National Museum of Health and Medicine recovered them once again in recent years.
"Although it is beyond the scope of this article, we also hope that our identifications will be useful for workers interested in comparing Einstein's brain with preserved brains from other gifted individuals," reads the study.
Albert Einstein was born in Germany on March 14, 1879, and died on April 18, 1955. The genius crafted the theory of relativity, the famous E=mc2 equation, and discovered the photoelectric effect throughout his tenure as a lifelong physicist.