LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to Ian Suk and Rafael Tamargo, in their paper in the current issue of Neurosurgery, Michelangelo hid his sketches of the human brain, including the spinal column inside his depiction of God.

The theory was first posited by physician Frank Meshberger in 1990, who maintained that the artist's rendering of the central panel on the ceiling, depicting God creating Adam was a perfect anatomical illustration of the human brain in cross section. Meshberger speculated that Michelangelo surrounded God with a shroud representing the human brain, suggesting God was endowing Adam with supreme human intelligence.

Michelangelo took four years to complete the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Proceeding from east to west, the artist started from the entrance of the Chapel to finish above the altar. The last panel he painted depicts God separating light from darkness. This is where the researchers say that Michelangelo hid the human brain stem, eyes and optic nerve of man inside the figure of God directly above the altar.

Suk and Tamargo say that in the panel, The Separation of Light from Darkness, leading up the center of God's chest and forming his throat, the researchers have found a precise depiction of the human spinal cord and brain stem.

The researchers note that a roll of fabric extends up the center of God's robe in a peculiar manner. The clothing is bunched up here as is seen nowhere else, and the fold clashes with what would be the natural drape of fabric over God's torso. The scholars say it is the human spinal cord, ascending to the brain stem in God's neck. At God's waist, the robe twists again in a peculiar crumpled manner, revealing the optic nerves from two eyes, precisely as Leonardo Da Vinci had shown them in his illustration of 1487.

The theory receives credence by the fact that at the age of 17, Michelangelo began dissecting corpses from a church graveyard. To conceal this secret, the artist destroyed almost all of his anatomical sketches and notes.