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Perhaps one of Einstein's lasting legacies, aside from his groundbreaking theories and revolutionary equations, has been his brain.

Since his death on 18 April 1955 scientists have studied, probed and analysed the organ that was inside the head of one of the greatest minds of the modern era.

And previously it had been thought that his abnormal genius was due to a different or enlarged brain - but new research suggests that wasn't the case, and his brain was just like the rest of humanity.

Claims that Einstein may have had a unique brain, which accounted for his great intellect, are wide of the mark according to a new study. It suggests that previous research of the genius's brain were flawed and don't actually prove there was anything special about it

In 1985, a study by Diamond et al claimed that Einstein's brain had a much higher number of glial cells than those of a more moderate intellect.

Glial cells, also known as neuroglia, are those that provide support and protection for neurons in the brain, with an increase in them thought to possibly indicate a higher brain power.

But new research by Dr Terence Hines of Pace University in New York suggests this and other studies were flawed - and there was actually nothing special about the brain at all, reports Discover Magazine's Neuroskeptic.

Einstein's brain is itself a cause of some controversy - upon his death in 1955 it is rumoured that he had requested his entire body be cremated.

But pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey was keen to preserve the greatest mind of a generation, and instead removed the brain just seven and a half hours after his death.

Although at the time this was against the wishes of the theoretical physicist, his son Hans later gave his blessing for the brain to be used for science according to National Geographic.

This led to that inaugural study in 1985, on which Harvey was a co-author, and since then numerous other scientists have suggested Einstein's brain was special in some regard.

In his new paper, however, Dr Hines disagrees.

A specimen of Nobel physicist Albert Einstein's brain is seen in a glass slide at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London on 27 March 2012. Since his death in 1955 Einstein's brain has been meticulously studied, but scientists are apparently no closer to finding out what made him so smart

First, he says of 28 tests done in 1985 comparing Einstein's brain to other 'control' brains, only one was deemed significantly accurate by the researchers at the time.

Furthermore, claims Dr Hines, other microscopic analyses 'found essentially no differences between his brain and that of the controls'.

The studies were famously performed with slices of Einstein's brain, but of that Dr Hines said: 'to believe that the analyses of one or a few tiny slices of a single brain could reveal anything related to the specific cognitive abilities of that brain is naïve'.

He suggests that observers should perform a 'blind test' of Einstein's brain and others, to see if they notice anything that makes it stand out.

'If there are actual differences, such an experimental methodology would reveal them,' writes Dr Hines.

Einstein also famously once wrote himself that he thought he had a great degree of control over his brain – he said his thoughts were not only visual, but muscular as well.

Again, however, Dr Hines debunks these comments as worthless in actual neuroscience, saying it is not possible to perform accurate research of his brain based on a few things he said.

It seems in death, after life, Einstein continues to confound scientists across the world of all disciplines.

One of Einstein's most famous equations was the mass-energy equivalence (pictured) that proposed matter was a form of energy. This led to the creation of the first nuclear weapons, of which Einstein once said: 'I know not with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones'