OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A founder of modern neuroscience who studied Einstein's brain has died.
The University of California, Berkeley says Marian Cleeves Diamond was 90 when she died July 25 at her home in Oakland.
She was the first to show that the brain can change with time and improve with enrichment.
Diamond discovered evidence of this by examining preserved slices of Einstein's brain.
She was a UC Berkeley professor emerita of integrative biology.
She found in 1984 that Einstein's brain had more support cells than average.
Working with rats, she showed that an enriched environment changed the anatomy of the brain.
The implication was that the brains of all animals including humans benefit from enriched environments and that impoverished environments can lower the capacity to learn.