A research by Yale University has unveiled that people have their own individual fingerprint of brain activity, which may help doctors predict the risk of mental illness and effects of medical treatment.

One of study researchers Emily Finn said that the pattern of brain activity were consistent. The patterns were so different that the researchers were able to choose people out of a crowd. The researchers said that they have used the patterns to show differences in fluid intelligence, meaning quick thinking and problem solving.

“We demonstrate that it is possible, with near-perfect accuracy in many cases, to identify an individual from a large group of subjects solely on the basis of his or her connectivity matrix”, affirmed Todd Constable, director of MRI research at Yale.

In the research, the team has used data from multiple functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans of 126 volunteers. After going through the data, the researchers found a distinct pattern of activity in each person, which remained consistent when they did something. The researchers were also able to predict on how volunteers will perform on tasks.

The researchers said that it was not easy to view the effect as it was not visual and was more about pattern. The researchers consider to apply the benefits of fMRI to individuals. The research work has found that one can find out about a bit about an individual from his fMRI.