Much like your fingerprints, the structure of your brain is entirely unique to you, according a new MRI study. The combination of nature and nurture–genetics and conditioning–ensures that no two brains are the same. Even identical twins, born with the same genetic code and raised in the same environment, brain structures differ.
Brain MRI – Image by AIM Medical Imaging
The research was conducted in Switzerland this spring by researchers at the University of Zurich and published in the journal Scientific Reports.
“With our study we were able to confirm that the structure of people’s brains is very individual,” said lead author of the study, Dr. Lutz Jancke. Dr. Jancke is a professor of neuropsychology at the University of Zurich.“The combination of genetic and non-genetic influences clearly affects not only the functioning of the brain, but also its anatomy.”
The researchers studied more than 450 anatomical figures of the brains on 191 participants, identifying unique combinations of specific anatomical characteristics with accuracy of 90 per cent.