24-01-2013, 04:11 PM
BRAIN FINGERPRINTING
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ABSTRACT
Every science involves skill, judgment, or "art" on the part of its practitioners and the science of Brain Fingerprinting testing is no exception. Every forensic science provides scientific data and scientific conclusions for the use of non-scientist judges and juries, who evaluate these on a common-sense and legal basis (i.e., a basis outside the realm of science) in reaching their conclusions regarding the facts and the law of the case.
Investigators' need for accurate, scientific means of linking perpetrators with crime scene evidence has inspired some scientists to ask, "What does the criminal always take with him from the crime scene that records his involvement in the crime?" The answer to this question, of course, is the Brain. The purpose of this document is to delineate the boundaries of the science of Brain Fingerprinting, and specify what falls inside and outside those boundaries.
Index terms: - forensic science, multifaceted electroencephalographic response analysis, memory and encoding related multifaceted electroencephalographic response, criminal investigation, brain waves.
INTRODUCTION
Forensic science is constantly evolving, from the discovery of the uniqueness of the human fingerprint, to the ability to match a criminal to his crime through DNA profiling; technology continues to provide investigators with new weapons. But fingerprint and DNA evidence are discovered in the only one percent of all cases. When trusted techniques fail, investigators must turn to cutting-edge technology to bring invisible clues to light.
Every criminal leaves evidence behind. The key is to know how to find it. A new technique is testing a way of tapping the suspect’s mind, to turn the criminal's own memory against him.
Dr. Lawrence Farwell is the Chairman and Chief Scientist at Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories in Seattle, Washington. He has developed a new computerized system known as brain fingerprinting. It reads the memory centers of the human brain. He believes that Brain Fingerprinting will one day be used to positively link perpetrators to their crimes.
Brain Fingerprinting may seem similar to Polygraph (usually called a Lie Detector), but it differs in important ways. A polygraph measures physiologic responses such as heart rate, sweating, breathing, and other processes that are only indirectly related to brain function. Brain Fingerprinting information comes directly from brain function. It and other related tests do not measure truthfulness but seek to determine whether the subject has a particular memory.
BRAIN FINGERPRINTING DETECTS INFORMATION
Brain Fingerprinting detects information stored in the human brain. Sensors on a headband, register the subject's EEG, or brain wave responses to the computer images. The EEG is fed through an amplifier and into a computer that uses proprietary software to display and interpret the brain waves. A specific, electrical brain wave response, known as a P300, is emitted by the brain within a fraction of a second when an individual recognizes and processes an incoming stimulus that is significant or noteworthy. When an irrelevant stimulus is seen, it is seen as being insignificant and not noteworthy and a P300 is not emitted.
SCIENTIFIC PROCEDURE
Three types of stimuli are presented: Targets, Irrelevant, and Probes. The Targets are made relevant and noteworthy to all subjects, i.e., the subject is given a list of the Target stimuli and instructed to press a particular button in response to Targets and another button in response to all other stimuli. Since the relatively rare Targets are singled out in the task being performed, the Targets are noteworthy for the subject, and each Target stimulus elicits a MERMER. Most of the non-Target stimuli are irrelevant, having no relation to the situation under investigation. This Irrelevant do not elicit a MERMER.
Some of the non-Target stimuli are relevant to the situation under investigation. These relevant stimuli are referred to as Probes. For a subject who has participated in the situation in question, the Probes are noteworthy due to the subject's knowledge of that situation, and, therefore, Probes elicit a MERMER when the subject is knowledgeable. Probes are indistinguishable from the Irrelevant for a subject who is not knowledgeable about the situation under investigation, and thus Probes do not elicit a MERMER if the subject is not knowledgeable.
CONCLUSION
The 100-percent accuracy and high confidence level of the results, however, provide further support for results from previous research using brain MERMER testing.
Today’s sophisticated crime scene analysis techniques can sometimes place the perpetrator at the scene of the crime; however, physical evidence is not always present. Knowledge of numerous details of the crime, such as the murder weapon, the specific position of the body, the amount of money stolen -- any information not available to the public -- may reveal that a particular individual is associated with the crime.