The brain of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was also studied by scientists.
Lenin, who was leader of the Russian revolution in 1917, died in 1924. His brain was removed before his body was laid to rest in a mausoleum in Moscow. The Soviet government commissioned the well-known German neuroscientist Oskar Vogt (born 1870, died 1959) to study Lenin's brain. Vogt spent two and a half years preparing and studying Lenin's brain.
He finally published a paper on the brain in 1929 where he reported that some neurons (pyramidal neurons) in layer III of the cerebral cortex of Lenin's brain were very numerous and large. For more information about Lenin's brain, see: The Study of Lenin's Brain and Bentivoglia, M. Cortical structure and mental skills: Oskar Vogt and the legacy of Lenin's brain, Brain Research Bulletin, 47:291-296, 1998.
Where is Einstein's brain now ?
Albert Einstein died at 1:15 am on April 18, 1955 at Princeton Hospital in New Jersey. Later that day, Princeton Hospital pathologist Dr. Thomas Harvey performed an autopsy on Einstein and removed Einstein's brain. Harvey cut the brain into 240 pieces.
He was very protective of the brain and kept it jars at his house. Over the years, Harvey gave several pieces of the brain to different researchers including Dr. Marian Diamond (UC Berkeley), Dr. Britt Anderson (University of Alabama) and Dr. Sandra Witelson (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario). Harvey moved around the country and he always brought the brain with him. Eventually, Harvey moved back to New Jersey. In 1996, Harvey brought the remaining pieces of Einstein's brain to Dr. Elliot Krauss, chief pathologist at Princeton Hospital.
(Reference: Abraham, C., Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002) Einstein did not object to the study of his brain. However, he did not want any of the resulting findings publicized. (Reference: Abraham, C., Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002) Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany.
