1998/05/01 by Toshiya Murai, Takashi Hanakawa, Akira Sengoku +4 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Atrophy #Cell Image Analysis Techniques #Cognitive science #Creativity #Developmental psychology #Epilepsy #Genius #Medicine #Natural history #Neural dynamics and brain function #Neuroimaging #Neuroscience #Parallels #Pathology #Psychology #Slime Mold and Myxomycetes Research #Temporal lobe
paper · doi:10.1212/wnl.50.5.1373
openalex publication_date 1998/05/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Kumagusu Minakata (1867-1941), a Japanese genius devoted to natural history and folklore, is famous for his immense range of works, including his discovery of many new varieties of mycetozoa, or slime molds. His diary reveals that he was affected by epilepsy. In this study of his brain, we adopted a method of measuring the volume of the hippocampi by MRI of postmortem brain and found evidence of right hippocampal atrophy. This finding, together with the striking parallels between his behavior and the known behavioral syndrome in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), suggests that he was affected by TLE. The postmortem imaging analysis of brain, as performed in this study, offers a bridge between neuroscience and classic psychopathologic approaches to the creativity of geniuses.