Get a Brain Like Einstein's*
Your logic is a simple algorithm. Scientists are close to identifying the secret code behind logic, and they are already ready to make your brain sharper than ever.
Albert Einstein's brain was nothing special. Scientists have long tried to find out how the physicist and Nobel laureate could solve a number of the major mysteries of the universe. Some suggested that his brain was larger than other people's, but scientists from the McMaster University in Canada dismissed this in 1991 after having compared Einstein’s brain to a series of ordinary brains. The genius’ brain even proved to be smaller than the average. Not even the front part of the cerebral cortex, which is extremely important for our logic, proved to be different in the famous scientist's brain.
All in all, scientists have concluded that a few of Einstein’s brain areas were more highly developed than ordinary people's, but that is so with all brains, including your own. The evidence of the physicist having a special, innate, anatomic advantage is hence doubtful. Instead, the explanation is probably to be found in the way in which he used his brain. Experiments show that we can all develop sharp logic – it only requires a little exercise.
And scientists are now close to finding the secret behind the brain’s logic – a simple algorithm, which has given us anything from stone tools to the relativity theory.
Logic revealed new law of nature
A workman fell from a roof, as Albert Einstein was in the neighbourhood. The accident triggered a spectacular display of signals in the young scientist’s brain. He combined the
experience with other experiences and discovered a new truth about the universe, which nobody had noticed before: two people experience physical phenomena differently, if they move at different speeds. To Einstein, it was clear that the workman fell towards the ground, whereas the workman himself felt completely weightless.
The physicist’s brain had carefully selected the most important information in a chaos of new and old sensory impressions, spotting a pattern, which subsequently allowed him to introduce the general relativity theory. The ability is known as logic, and we all have it. It forms the basis of our common sense and enables us to solve complex problems.
Chain reaction solves the problem
The engine behind logic is located in the prefrontal cortex at the front of the cerebral cortex. The area is highly developed in people and helps us think clearly without being affected by emotions. If you see a spider on your bed, your brain’s centre of fear, the amygdala, might emit electic signals to the rest of the brain to make you escape or fight. At the same time, your prefrontal cortex considers, whether the spider is dangerous or not. The brain centre does this by communicating with the hippocampus and other brain regions, that keep track of your memories. This is where your knowledge about spiders is located, and it tells you that the small creature is harmless. Subsequently, the prefrontal cortex emits impulses to restrain the amygdala’s fear signals.
The next step is getting the spider out of the bed. Now, your logic uses areas of the parietal lobe, which can analyse the problem down to the last detail: how large is the spider, how quickly does it move, and how hard is the surface it is sitting on? The information is sent to the creative brain centre, which is located in the inferior frontal gyrus. You scan the surroundings to find something that can solve the problem. You might see a piece of paper and a cup, finally deciding to capture the spider in the cup and carry it outside.
Easy exercises make you smarter
Extremely simple exercises can improve your ability to solve the small problems of your everyday life or the major mysteries of physics, according to scientific experiments. In one of them, scientists from the Universität des Saarlandes in Germany first tested different aspects of their test subjects’ logic. They were asked to solve problems that tested how good they were at controlling their immediate reactions – such as fear of spiders. The word “red” might have appeared on a display written in blue letters, and the test subjects were to quickly tell the correct colour of the letters.
Other problems tested memory and abstract thinking – an ability in which Einstein excelled. You can find out how good you are at abstract thinking by taking the Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices test, in which you are to find the pattern of a series of figures and find out what the next figure in the sequence ought to look like. Try it in problem 1 on page 76.
The German scientists subsequently divided the test subjects into three age groups: children, young people, and elderly people, and each group was divided into different exercise groups. One group only exercised one type of problems, whereas another was to switch