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Brain fingerprinting: yes, please!
THE post 9/11 scenario has brought to light one of the biggest challenges of this century — terrorism. Almost every country in the world is threatened by it in some way or the other, inadvertently resulting in war and systematic manhunts for possible suspects.
Most countries are focusing more and more on strengthening their intelligence services and are attempting to attain accuracy and precision. However, investigations do not end with arresting perpetrators. Apprehending criminals is just one of the many steps that lead to the most intimidating task of all — determining whether a suspect is engaged in terrorism or not.
Since the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, Dr Lawrence A. Farwell has been working on this issue. He has attempted to learn more about terrorist activities through vigilant inspection of brain waves emitted during the investigation. This is referred to as brain fingerprinting. This new technology, for the first time, allows law enforcing officials to scientifically determine whether or not a particular piece of information exists in the person’s brain.
Brain fingerprinting can also determine the presence or absence of specific information, such as terrorist training and associations. As the brain is the central processing unit of our body and it controls all functions of the body, brain fingerprinting tests helps in detecting information related to crime.
One of the reasons for using this technique to investigate crimes of terrorism is that more of ten than not, fingerprints and DNA samples are unavailable. However, the memory of planning, organization and execution of such activities will always be available somewhere in the brain.
According to scientists, there is a great deal of difference in the knowledge and information of a terrorist or criminal and that of an innocent person. Terrorists have lot of knowledge and information about the manufacturing, usage and implementation of any terrorist activities, tools or method. All of this is saved in the brain and so brain fingerprinting tests can be very helpful in identifying criminals.
In a brain fingerprinting test, words, pictures and sounds which are pertinent to the crime or terrorist actions are presented through computer along with some other irrelevant sounds and pictures. Electrical brain responses are calculated non-invasively using a patented headband provided with sensing devices.
The test detects information stored in the human brain with the help of P300 — a specific electrical brain wave which is emitted within seconds when the brain recognizes and gives response to a stimulus which has some significance.
When the brain does not accept irrelevant or non-specific stimulus, it doesn’t release the wave. P300 electrical brain wave response is extensively recognized and accepted in the scientific community as an important identifying electrical wave from the brain. A computer is also used to evaluate the responses from one’s brain and it decides whether or not specific information is stored in the suspect’s brain.
The results cannot be changed or influenced by the willingness of the person who is being tested for telling the truth. It can provide stored information in the criminal’s brain related to locations, people and actions for lawful reasons. Amazingly, during the test, no questions are asked. It doesn’t aim to determine whether information is true or false; rather the test establishes the absence or presence of specific information in the brain.
One has to wonder what could be the other possible uses of this technique. Contrary to popular opinion, this test does not answer common or irrelvant queries and neither does it provide solutions for those questions which don’t have any reliable details against which one can compare the answers given by the subject.
For example, questions such whether a person is a terrorist cannot be not dealt with in this test but information about terrorist training camps can be detected.
The investigators also need to have consistency in their approach with which they can analyse factual details in a better way and can illustrate details that will be helpful in formulating the brain fingerprinting test.
Procedure: For some seconds the suspect or subject is made to follow a sequence of words, pictures or sounds under the supervision of a computer. Three stimuli are presented in this regard — targets, irrelevants and probes. The targets contains information which is known to the suspect and so helps creating a baseline brain response called Memory and Encoding Related Multifaceted Electroencephalographic Response (Mermer).
This is conducted to determine which information is important to the subject being tested. The subject is then provided with a list of target stimuli and is asked to press a particular button in response to the given target stimulus and another button in response to other stimuli.
The non-targeted stimuli are mostly irrelevant to the tested situation but those which are relevant are called as probes. For a subject with particular information of material being tested, the probes are important because of the knowledge he/she has. This is why probes draw out a Mermer, which shows that particular information is present or stored in the suspect’s brain.
For those subjects who don’t have information, probes are usually indistinguishable from irrelevant information and therefore don’t extract a Mermer. This shows the absence of information stored in the suspect’s brain.
The whole process is performed through vigilant computer controls, from the production of stimuli that record electrical activities in the brain and mathematical data algorithm comparing responses to the three types of stimuli. This shows which information is present or absent in the suspect’s brain, thus providing statistical proof of the test. The biases and understandings of the suspect during analysis don’t affect the appearance, presentation or output of the stimulus presentation.
If tested information is related to crime then the result showing presence of information entails the contribution or participation of the suspect in the crime and absence implies non-participation. Similarly when information tested is known only to the members of a particular organization or group, then the presence of information shows their involvement and affiliation with the crime. Any information that the suspect has received through legitimate means is not considered part of the test.
However the suspect is tested only for information that he/she has obtained through unlawful means or denies its presence in his/her brain.
Brain fingerprinting tests can prove to be useful in the following ways:
1. Combating terrorism.
2. Identifying terrorists, their crimes and direct and indirect involvement in those crimes.
3. Identifying trained terrorists who have the ability to commit acts of terrorism in future even if they are not currently involved in any terrorist activities.
4. Identifying people who have knowledge or have received training in bank robberies, banking, finance or communications and are linked with terrorist groups and actions.
5. Determining the role of an individual within a terrorist group.
This test will not only be helpful in combatting terrorists but will also help in treatment of some serious medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. In fact, some important medical uses of brain fingerprinting include:
1. Determining the onset of dementia onset progression.
2. Developing diagnostic and monitoring systems for Alzheimers .
3 Using exact measurements of cognitive functioning to identify the effects of new medications.
4. Allowing doctors to check the progress of their patients and provide treatments accordingly.
5. Improving healthcare and thus the quality of life for millions of people via precise, cheap and simple methods to administer tests.
The most widely used lie detectors, known as polygraphs, are now being replaced with brain fingerprinting tests. A polygraph measures a set of physical reactions for questioning. The fundamental principle is that people being questioned about crimes in which they were involved will involuntarily exhibit tell-tale increases in their pulse, blood pressure, breathing rate and sweat levels. The difficulty faced when using the conventional lie detectors is that a person may fake a response and dupe the system or an individual may just be very apprehensive even though he is innocent, and may have a stress response.
Brain fingerprinting has shown its utility, accuracy, cost-effectiveness and credibility in different scientific researches and publications. With the advent and applied advantages of brain fingerprinting technology, a new epoch in security and intelligence collection has started.
It’s quite possible now to identify and catch the culprits and those who support them rapidly and accurately. It will be difficult now for the terrorists and criminals to get away simply because there is no evidence as their own brain will defy their words. One can only hope that the world will be a safer and better place to live in with the help of brain fingerprinting.
The writer
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