NCJ Number
211398
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 32 Issue: 9 Dated: September 2005 Pages: 94,96-98,100,103
Date Published
September 2005
Length
8 pages
Annotation
A new forensic tool is helping police officers access a suspect's mind to determine what information is stored in his/her brain.
Abstract
This new innovation, called Brain Fingerprinting, can determine whether a person has certain information stored in his/her memory. By reading a specific brain response, called a P300 MERMER, (Memory and Encoding Related Multi-facet Electronic Response), an analyst can determine whether the person has knowledge of a crime or other type of information. The testing records and compares the brain's response to three types of visual stimuli: "targets," "probes," and "irrelevants." The stimuli are words or pictures that are flashed on a computer screen in front of the subject for approximately three-tenths of a second at a time. The "target" stimuli provide a control for the testers. This is information that testers are certain the suspect knows. P300 brain pattern indicates the subject recognizes a word or picture. Mixed in with "targets" and "irrelevants" (stimuli that are irrelevant to the crime and with which the suspect is not familiar) are items that will be recognizable as salient features of the crime to someone who was there and knows the details. If the P300 response to these "probe" stimuli match the response to the target stimuli, then the suspect has knowledge of the crime-related stimuli. Brain Fingerprinting, based on its accuracy in scientific testing, has been ruled admissible in court and is expected to withstand defense challenges of admissibility in an increasing number of cases.