As famous philosopher and scientist René Descartes once write : “ It is not enough to have a dependable judgment ; the master thing is to use it well . ” Well now researchershave assay to unraveljust how good that psyche of Descartes was .
While his actual genius may be long waste , his skull still repose in the National Museum of Natural chronicle in Paris . But even when a mentality is long gone , they tend to leave an imprint on the inside of the braincase , or cranium . Rather than taking a physical cast of the historically important skull , the team of scientists or else take on a scan of it , including any opinion left on the inside .
From this , they were able to construct an astonishing 3D effigy of what the large philosopher ’s brain once look like . Published in theJournal of the Neurological Sciences , most of the brain is fairly everyday . But what is interesting is an enlargement in the region of the brain known as the frontal cortex . It has been suggested that this area is involved in process the meanings of Word of God , among other thing .
The casts of mastermind , known formally as endocasts , can reveal details about the wit and its function , though to what grade is extremely disputable . However , that has n’t stop it from being used in biology – especially in regards to out animals – to bring in an insight into how past tool may have once functioned . It has been peculiarly helpful in paleoanthropology for found the structure and hemispheric specialisation of the wit in former human ancestors .
Endocasts have also been used tolook at the brain functionof other long - extinct creatures , such as dinosaur . These have been created unnaturally by making a cast of the skull , but even occur naturally through fossilization . While uncommon , a few hundred fossil dinosaur endocasts have been detect , and they can reveal some interesting thing . Endocasts fromTyrannosaurus male monarch , for example , show that they had abnormally orotund olfactory bulb , which suggests they had a good sense of sense of smell .
But back to the brain of Descartes . While fascinating to look at , and intriguing to know that he had an enlarged frontal cortex , it does n’t really separate us much about whether or not the man was a “ genius ” , or how to distinguish them . Intelligence can not be measured simply by looking at the stuff between our auricle , but instead by how we practice it .
mental image in text edition : Famed philosopher and scientist , René Descartes ( 1596 - 1650 ) . Georgios Kollidas / Shutterstock
[ H / T : Science Magazine ]
