NeuroTales

Dr. Marian Diamond stood in both shock and awe. She found it hard to believe that the only difference between Einstein’s brain and a normal human brain is the number of ‘glial cells’. They were almost four times more in Einstein’s brain, while the number of neurons remained approximately the same. “Was this just a fluke? Could these glial cells be the reason behind Einstein’s brilliance?” - the famous neuroanatomist from University of California, Berkeley wondered. Introduction Glial cells are non-neuronal, electrically inactive cells present in the brain. These cells were discovered in 1856, by German pathologist Rudolph Virchow. Initially, they were considered to be mere connective cells in the brain and hence the name “glia” in Latin, which literally translates to “glue”. It was only later that the varied functions of glial cells were discovered. Glial cells are further classified into - Astrocytes, Oligodendrocytes and the Micro Glia that are present in the Central