Brain scan will help you choose a profession

Mental tests are widely used for vocational guidance of young people, usually schoolchildren. Tests usually test memory, mental speed, abstract / verbal thinking and other characteristics. Based on these data, a specialist can make recommendations in which field of activity a teenager can theoretically find a suitable job.

Everything is fine, but such tests take too much time and are not very accurate. Scientists from the University of California claim that they were able to develop a technique that in the future will allow most of these tests to be replaced with a single brain scan.

They compared the test results of 40 people with a map of the distribution of gray matter in the brain of each of them, after which they launched the statistical analysis procedure and found a clear relationship for each of the eight tests. The results are published in the journal BMC Research Notes ( PDF ), the document indicates the exact coordinates of the brain regions that are responsible for a particular ability.

If further experiments confirm the first calculations, then in the future career guidance of people can be largely automated, and MRI scans will be attached to a professional resume.