How does the brains of geniuses work? (first)

Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton or Mozart are geniuses. So how does their brain work? Is it different from ordinary people?

>>> How isgenius different from ordinary people?

In 1905, Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity. He also demonstrated the existence of atoms and discovered that light worked under both particles and waveforms. Above all, in the same year, he found the famous equation E = mc² describing the relationship between matter and energy. Einstein achieved those achievements when he was only 26 years old.

Albert Einstein

There is no doubt that Einstein is a genius. Like physicist Isaac Newton, he played a major role in the development of integrals and subjects that made many people difficult to acquire. Another genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, began composing music when he was 5 years old. Mozart wrote hundreds of tracks before he died at the age of 35 in 1760.

Isaac Newton

According to common sense, geniuses are often different people. They can think better and faster than others. In addition, many people believe that because of the extraordinary power of the brain, they make weird and weird actions. Although it is not difficult to discover genius, it is extremely difficult to identify what makes a person a genius. Understanding the reason why a person becomes a genius is still a difficult mystery to solve.

There are two things that make studying geniuses difficult:

- The determination of genius is still very subjective. Some people think that someone with a IQ (IQ) is higher than normal and that person is a genius. Others claim that the IQ test only measures a limited part of human intelligence. Some people believe that a high IQ does not determine if a person is a true genius.

- Extremely abstract genius concept. Most scientific and medical research is based on data and detailed information. Abstract areas such as genius determination are not easy to quantify, analyze or research.

So, before understanding how geniuses think and work, the first thing to define is exactly what 'genius' is. In the context of this article, a genius is not simply a high IQ, instead a genius is a brilliant man and he breaks the usual rules with discoveries. , his invention or artwork. In short, a genius must be both intelligent and able to use that intelligence in the most effective and impressive way.

But what makes a person capable of doing that? Is it due to brain differences, or extraordinary intelligence? Or is it due to the ability to pay attention to information that others consider to be irrelevant? We will begin to find answers to these questions with understanding the human brain.

Genius and brain

The brain sets the body's body systems. As you move, the brain sends signals through nerves and tells the muscle what to do. Your brain controls the senses: hearing, smell, taste, sight, touch and you experience, handling emotions through the brain. Above all, the brain allows you to think, gather information and solve problems. But how does the brain make us intelligent?

Scientists have yet to find out all the functions of the brain, but they have determined which parts help you think. The cerebral cortex, the outer part of the brain, is where thought and reasoning are formed. It is the higher function of the brain, the lower function, related to survival skills, lies deeper in the brain.

The cortex is the largest part of the brain and it has wrinkles and folds that allow it to fit inside the skull. If you remove and prolong an adult's brain, it will be as big as a page of newspaper. The brain is divided into several lobes, and each region is different in the lobe that handles different tasks. Here is a summary of the function of the brain lobes:

- Frontal lobe: language, thoughts and memory.

- Peak lobe: feeling from the body.

- temporal lobe: auditory information from the ears.

- occipital lobe: visual information from the eyes.

The cortex has a great influence on how you think, but studying exactly how the cortex makes you intelligent is extremely difficult, because:

- It is difficult to reach the brain, because it is deep in the skull.

- Tools to observe the brain, such as machine resonance images, require a person to be completely immobile. This makes it difficult for doctors to observe human brain activity in real-life activities.

- The brain, like all organs in the body, undergoes changes after a person dies. These changes can make it difficult to compare the brain in life and death. In addition, post-mortem examination cannot assess brain activity.

Despite all these challenges, researchers have discovered a few things about how the brain affects intelligence. A 2004 study at the University of California, Irvine showed that the amount of gray matter in parts of the cortex had a greater impact on intelligence than other parts of the brain. This shows the physical properties of the components that make up the brain - not a centralized "intelligence center" - determining one's intelligence.

An analysis in 1999 of Albert Einstein's brain also seemed to support this theory. Einstein's brain is slightly smaller than the average brain. However, parts of the parietal lobe in his brain are wider than most people's brains. Those larger areas in his brain are related to mathematics and spatial reasoning. The parietal lobe of Einstein's brain has no cracks - marks that are found in most people's brains. Analysts hypothesize that the absence of cracks means that different areas of his brain can communicate better.

A 2006 paper in the journal "Nature" suggests that the way the brain grows is more important than the size of the brain. A person's cortex becomes thicker in childhood and thinner in adolescence. According to research, the brain of children with high IQs is thicker than other children.

Studies also show that, to some extent, children inherit intelligence from their parents. Some researchers hypothesize that this is because the brain's physical structure may be a genetic trait. In addition, the process of trying to become good at something just requires and encourages your brain to work to handle it better.

Although scientists are not sure exactly, it is clear that the brain plays a role in determining a person's intelligence. But what is the difference between genius and intelligence? And what makes a person smarter than others? We will see the connection between intelligence and genius in the next section.

Smoking reduces intelligence

According to research results published in 2004, smokers and those who have ever smoked will not do a good test by non-smokers. 465 people performed a cognitive ability test in 1947 at the age of 11. Between 2000 and 2004 they redo the test again. Based on the results, smoking causes a 1% decrease in cognitive function. One possible explanation for this correlation is that smoking causes lung damage, resulting in less oxygen for the human brain.

Smart babies

After research shows that listening to Mozart music can increase IQ, many parents start to listen to Mozart's music, hoping to take advantage of the "Mozart effect" . An explanation for this "effect" is music that makes people alert and alert. On the other hand, listening to Mozart music and dealing with mathematical or spatial arguments are based on similar neurons in the brain.