This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Karen Hopkins.

In what may be hailed as one of the most significant scientific advances of all time,

researchers have discovered a use for Adam Sandler and Brussels Sprouts.

Ah ha ha!

Shut up!

Because when you look at pictures of celebrities like Sandler, along with dishes like sprouts, your brain responds differently

than anyone else's.

That unique pattern of brain activity, the neural equivalent of a fingerprint, can be used to

identify you with perfect accuracy.

So say scientists in a study in the journal

I Tripoli transactions on information forensics and security.

Last year, this same team published work in which they recorded subjects responses to a series of words, like

podiatrist or sluice. Because people's brains respond differently to terms with which they are

familiar, and no two people have the exact same vocabulary, showing someone enough words should produce a pattern of neural responses, in other words, a brain print, unique to that individual.

Indeed, the researchers found they could pinpoint one person out of a group of 32 with an accuracy of 97%.

But given the work's potential security applications, think Pentagon Entry or Nuclear Weapons Command, the researchers wanted to push the technique further

to achieve absolute certitude. So they decided to throw in picks of foods and famous folk

about which people were likely to harbor strong personal preferences,

like liver and Angelina Jolie or Hallibate and Anne Hathaway.

50 volunteers looked at 400 images while wearing a cap decorated with sensors that record the brain's electrical activity.

The resulting brain prints, which included the neural activity produced in response to celebs, foodstuffs, vocabulary, and some repetitive

...