A breakthrough new revelation has shared that a simple, one-minute test can effectively diagnose Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with an accuracy of about 90%.

The test aims at measuring the small magnetic changes or fluctuations that happen when "groups of neurons fire in synchrony", even when a person who is being tested is not thinking anything at all. Known as "synchronous neural interactions", these brain changes have already been shown to differentiate signals from people with various conditions, including Alzheimer’s.

While researchers have been mapping and measuring these magnetic fields since the 1960s, Dr. Apostolos Georgopoulos, at the University of Minnesota, US, has been the first one to have developed the "Synchronous Neural Interactions" approach as a method to scientifically understand the signals that are produced by magnetoencephalography.

Professor Georgopoulos, and his team, have employed the aforementioned approach to try and study its accuracy in diagnosis of PTSD.

The study, which involved analysis of data collected from 74 war veterans who had PTSD in contrast with 250 mentally healthy people, has been published in of Neural Engineering.