Psychological Types and Brain Structures
Introduction
Modern neurobiology has experimentally proven the correlation between the sizes of brain structures and individual psychological characteristics and cognitive abilities.
An intriguing fact about the sizes of human brain structures is that some structures in different people can vary in size several times over, and some structures might be present in some people and completely absent in others.
The existing body of collected data on this topic is unfortunately quite limited. It is mainly represented by educational materials and scientific monographs, including the Stereoscopic Atlas of the Human Brain. For a more comprehensive explanation of Socionics, integrating these findings with psychological typologies can offer deeper insights.
Practical Application Challenges
If we try to find traces of the practical application of the accumulated knowledge on this topic in modern civilization, we quickly discover that we encounter a lack of technical infrastructure corresponding to the topic.
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According to some neurobiologists, what separates us from full-fledged MRI scanning of the brain, which would allow us to obtain volumetric images of brain structures and thus begin to operate with qualitatively new data, is the insufficient resolution of the devices, the production of which is established by developers.
I see two problems in this approach:
Firstly, when the necessary MRI resolution is achieved and such devices appear in clinics, the scanning procedure will not be a walk in the park. Modern MRI scans can take from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the complexity and purpose of the study. Such analyses will likely be done once or twice in a lifetime, making it tolerable. However, the images themselves will be useless to the average person, so working algorithms for processing and interpreting these images will be needed.
Current Developments
Modern developments in high-resolution MRI devices are being conducted by leading technology and medical companies such as Siemens Healthineers, General Electric Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, as well as Korean companies like Samsung Medison. These companies are actively working on increasing the resolution capacity of MRIs, which will allow for more detailed images of brain structures.
The total costs for the development and implementation of high-resolution MRI devices can range from $300 million and up. In the future, such devices could significantly advance the diagnosis and study of psychological and cognitive characteristics of a person. However, to achieve this goal, not only significant funding is necessary, but also interdisciplinary cooperation between scientists, engineers, medical professionals, and business representatives.
Thus, the first problem I see clearly with using MRI for brain scanning is the cost, time, and usability of this technology.
As I mentioned above, having high-resolution MRI alone will not provide us with enough data in the short term to develop interpretation algorithms. This problem is also exacerbated by the need to allocate almost an entire day for such scanning. How many of us have done such an interesting and exciting DNA analysis, which is done without personal presence and is relatively inexpensive? I suspect that even fewer people will want and be able to participate in the procedure to obtain a map of their own brain, which is expensive and time-consuming. As a result, the validity of data interpretation will remain at the level of astrological predictions and divination for some time.
Opteamyzer's Solution
To solve this problem, the Opteamyzer team is working on its own portable device, which theoretically will be able to solve the task of obtaining a picture of brain structures without the need to spend hours in an MRI. Of course, the effectiveness of the principle proposed for use in this device has not yet been experimentally confirmed, and therefore it is too early to assert anything. But even with relative success, we will solve one problem: it will be much cheaper to produce and use. Plus, the time required to conduct this test will be measured in seconds, and the test can be done anywhere, anytime.
Ultimately, this approach will be the only correct one for developing future human typology, where we will conduct psychodiagnostics not based on ancient questionnaires ("Everybody lies," Dr. House) or with the help of specially trained specialists with experience in type determination, but using objective data.