Last week I posted ‘The Price of Prodigious Ability‘, which discussed the concept of modular intelligence.

Basically, the concept-which I believe modern neuroscience strongly supports- states our brains are made up of many different modules, and each module is responsible for a specific type of intelligence. In other words, while some modules are geared to mainly process language, others are designed to process math. Of course, there are many other types: those that subserve musical intelligence, artistic intelligence, social intelligence, etc…

This concept does away with the notion that intelligence can be summed up with one ‘IQ’ number.

Furthermore, the module idea is not just theoretical: new brain scanning technology enables us to actually see the different physical locations of various modules in action as they’re used.

And we are now beginning to realize that not everyone is created equal as far as these modules are concerned. Genetics, prenatal development, and childhood exposure all contribute to a variable map. Some of us are born with large language modules, while our visual-spatial areas may be quite small. Some of us may have lots of architectural defects in our social regions, while our musical areas may be wired super-efficiently.

This is where the story of Einstein’s brain comes into play.

Overall, there’s not much of a difference between his brain and that of the average person. However, if we look at his inferior parietal lobe, we see that it is huge. Much larger than average. Which is interesting, because this region is thought to be very important for mathematical and spatial intelligence- the essence of Einstein’s genius.

Furthermore, because this area was so much larger than average, something had to give. And in Einstein’s brain, we find that the Peri-Sylvian regions are noticeably smaller.

Why is this important? It turns out these Peri-Sylvian regions are heavily involved in linguistic intelligence. And if we look back at Einstein’s childhood, we find that he didn’t speak until he was 3 years old. Most kids are speaking between the ages of 1 and 2. And at 16 he failed language exams for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. As an adult, his lecturing ability was said to be horrible. (Reference: Wikipedia)

These unique findings regarding Einstein’s brain reinforce the idea that not only are there many different kinds of intelligence, but that each subtype is determined by the modular nature of the brain.

More importantly, however, this should inspire us all to realize that our inadequacies may actually be the very source of our strengths and talents.

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