[edit] Study finding more glial cells in Einstein's brain

In the 1980s, University of California, Berkeley professor Marion C. Diamond persuaded Thomas Harvey to give her samples of Einstein's brain. She compared the ratio of glial cells in Einstein's brain with that in the preserved brains of 11 men. Her laboratory made thin sections of Einstein's brain, each 6 micrometers thick. They then used a microscope to count the cells. Einstein's brain had more glial cells relative to neurons in all areas studied, but only in the left inferior parietal area was the difference statistically significant. This area is part of the association cortex, regions of the brain responsible for incorporating and synthesizing information from multiple other brain regions. Diamond admits a limitation in her study is that she had only one Einstein to compare with 11 normal men. S. S. Kantha of the Osaka BioScience Institute in Japan criticized Diamond's study, as did Terence Hines of Pace University. [11]

Diamond and Joseph Altman (then of Purdue University) had already both discovered that rats with enriched environments developed more glial cells for each neuron. Rats in impoverished environments had fewer glial cells relative for each neuron. [12] A lifetime studying difficult mathematical and physical problems may have enriched Einstein's environment.