Introduction to Psychology
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Marian Diamond

American neuroanatomist known for enriched-environment research

1926 to 2017. Born in United States. Chronology section: Born 1920 to 1949.

Allied discipline: worked mainly in neuroanatomy, not psychology.

Allied disciplineBrainDevelopment

American anatomist at the University of California, Berkeley. With David Krech, Mark Rosenzweig and Edward Bennett she reported that enriched environments changed the rat cerebral cortex, and she later analysed preserved tissue from Albert Einstein's brain.

Why this person matters

Diamond's rat studies were part of the evidence that brain structure responds to experience, at a time when many neuroscientists held it to be fixed. She taught anatomy at Berkeley for decades and was the first woman graduate student in its anatomy department.

Main contributions

  1. Enriched environments and the cortex

    With Krech and Rosenzweig she reported in 1964 that the cortex of rats in enriched conditions was about 6 per cent thicker than that of rats in impoverished conditions. Berkeley says the work gave the first anatomical evidence of brain plasticity.

  2. Einstein's brain

    In 1984 she received four blocks of Einstein's preserved brain. A 1985 paper by Diamond, Scheibel, Murphy and Harvey reported more glial cells per neuron in one inferior parietal region than in control brains.

Context and limits

The Einstein study compared one brain with 11 control brains. The paper created controversy over the role of glial cells, though it also drew new interest to them. Some neuroscientists first resisted her enrichment findings. Results from rats do not by themselves show the same effects in people.

In your introductory course

Biological bases of behaviour.Appears in the biological chapter on brain plasticity and in the nature and nurture discussion of environmental enrichment.

Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 3.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.

Years of active work

  1. 1953

    Received her PhD in anatomy at Berkeley.

  2. 1960

    Returned to Berkeley as a lecturer.

  3. 1964

    Reported the enriched-environment cortex findings with Krech and Rosenzweig.

  4. 1985

    Published On the Brain of a Scientist: Albert Einstein with colleagues.

Sources