The journal Science Advances publishes an article that reveals that the human brain has a kind of fingerprint and that, in addition, this fingerprint changes over time.
“My research examines the networks and connections within the brain, and especially the links between different areas, in order to gain a greater understanding of how things work,” explains Enrico Amico, researcher at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne ( EPFL), in Switzerland. “For this we use magnetic resonance scanners, which measure brain activity over a certain period of time.” His research group processes the scans to generate graphs, represented as colored matrices, that summarize the brain activity of a subject. This type of modeling technique is known in scientific circles as network neuroscience or brain connectomics. “All the information we need is in these graphs, which are commonly known as ‘functional brain connectomes.’ It is a kind of map of the neural network that informs us about what the subjects were doing during their MRI, if they were resting or performing other tasks, for example. Our connectomes change depending on the activity carried out and the parts of the brain that are used ”, explains the scientist.
A few years ago, neuroscientists at Yale University studying these connectomes discovered that each of us has a unique brain fingerprint. By comparing graphs generated from MRI images of the same subjects taken a few days apart, they were able to correctly match the two images of a given subject almost 95% of the time. In other words, they could accurately identify an individual based on their brain fingerprint. “That’s really impressive because the identification was done using only functional connectomes, which are essentially sets of correlation scores,” says Amico.
He decided to take this finding one step further. In previous studies, brain fingerprints were identified by MRI scans that lasted for several minutes. But he wondered if these footprints could be identified after just a few seconds. “Until now, neuroscientists have identified brain fingerprints using two MRI scans taken over a fairly long period. But do fingerprints actually show up after just five seconds, for example, or do they take longer? What if fingerprints from different areas of the brain appeared at different points in time? Since there was no response, we decided to try different time scales, ”explains Amico.
A brain fingerprint in just 1 minute 40 seconds
“We realized that the information necessary for a brain fingerprint to develop could be obtained in very short periods of time,” says Amico. “There is no need for an MRI that measures brain activity for five minutes, for example. Shorter timescales might also work. ” Their study also showed that the fastest brain fingerprints begin to appear in sensory areas of the brain, and particularly in areas related to eye movement, visual perception, and visual attention. . over time, also the regions of the frontal cortex, associated with more complex cognitive functions begin to reveal unique to each of us information.
The next step will be to compare the brain fingerprints of healthy patients with those of Alzheimer’s disease. “Based on my initial findings, it appears that the characteristics that make a brain fingerprint unique constantly disappear as the disease progresses,” says Amico. “It becomes more difficult to identify people based on their connectomes. It is as if a person with Alzheimer’s loses his brain identity ”.
Along these lines, potential applications could include early detection of neurological conditions in which fingerprints from the brain disappear. The Amico technique can be used in patients affected by autism or stroke, or even in subjects with drug addictions. “This is just another small step toward understanding what makes our brain unique – the opportunities this information can create are limitless.”
