Press realease: Why are our brains wrinkled?

1 November 2024

Gresham Professor of Geometry, Alain Goriely, to give lecture looking at the geometry of what's inside our head on Tuesday, 12 November, online and in central London 

The human brain has a distinctive appearance akin to a dry walnut: it’s more wrinkled than our foreheads, and looks a bit like a maze ... but why do our brains have such a strange shape?  

A new lecture from Gresham College in London will explore the latest research, explain how maths can help, and try and offer an answer.  

Given by the new Professor of Geometry, Alain Goriely will explore the links between the geometry of the brain and its functions.  

He says that the unique shape of the brain has been discussed for millennia with scientists trying to unpack its secrets.  

Surprisingly, while the same valleys and ridges can be found in larger mammals, they do not appear in small ones, suggesting a possible relationship between size and shape.  Do size and geometry play a part in our intelligence and development, and just how do these shapes emerge in the first place?  

Using simple mathematical models, Professor Goriely aims to help us understand more about the patterns in our mind.  

“The brain has a very special place in our understanding of the world. We know that it's the organ that allows us to have feelings and thoughts, but also interact with others and the world around us,” Professor Goriely said.  

The lecture is suitable for everyone, regardless of scientific or mathematical backgrounds, and will be given at Gresham College’s base in Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn, London on Tuesday, 12 November. 

Starting at 6pm, entry is free, and it is also broadcast live online. It will last an hour.  

In-person places can be booked online via Gresham College’s website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/convoluted-brain 

ENDS 

Notes to Editors  

Images available on request

For more information about this story or to arrange an interview with a Gresham Professor please contact: Phil Creighton press@gresham.ac.uk   

About Gresham College  
Gresham College has been providing free, educational lectures - at the university level - since 1597 when Sir Thomas Gresham founded the college to bring Renaissance Learning to Londoners. Our history includes some of the luminaries of the scientific revolution including Robert Hooke and Sir Christopher Wren and connects us to the founding of the Royal Society.  

Today we carry on Sir Thomas's vision. The College aims to stimulate intellectual curiosity and to champion academic rigour, professional expertise and freedom of expression. www.gresham.ac.uk  

Gresham College is a registered charity number 1039962 and relies on donations to help us encourage people's love of learning for many years to come. For more details or to make a gift, visit our website.    

About the series Mathematics and the Brain: How Mathematics Changed the Way We Think about Ourselves 

The human brain is an organ of extreme complexity, the object of ultimate intellectual egocentrism and a source of endless mathematical challenges. Its intricate folded shape and complicated internal wiring have fascinated generations of scientists, but still raise fundamental questions. How is the brain’s geometry related to its function?  How do brain convolutions emerge?  

How are different parts of the brain connected to each other and for what purpose? How do we decode perceptual signals from the outside world? 

And how does it all fail catastrophically?