For JULY 2002 issue

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-108

WHAT IS BRAIN FINGERPRINTING?

‑Dr. Anil Aggrawal

We strive to give latest information to our readers through this column. This time I will talk about a revolutionary new technique in forensic science – Brain Fingerprinting.

You must have heard about ordinary fingerprinting, DNA fingerprinting, even footprints, handprints, palate prints and lip prints, but what in the world is brain fingerprinting? Let me explain.

On 11 September 2001, we had the most audacious act of terrorism when 19 people hijacked four different airplanes and rammed them into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon. Following this the US immigration and customs department increased their levels of checking at the airports. Recently I was in the United States, and I found that at all airports we had to face long delays because of this checking. At some places, we were even asked to take off our shoes!

All this causes unnecessary problem to the innocent people, and at the same time the airline staff gets unnecessarily exhausted. This may actually result in actual criminals passing through them with little difficulty.

But what if the police personnel could directly “peep” into the brains of the people. A person who comes to the airport with an intention to hijack a plane has this “information” in his brain. He is only able hide it very efficiently. But suppose there were a way whereby one could straightaway “read” the thoughts of the people. That would make the task of all police officers very easy. Innocent customers would be allowed to pass easily, without even frisking, while potential hijackers would at once be caught. If one could read the minds of criminals, even police interrogation would become very easy, and the use of third degree methods would disappear almost overnight. But how to read the thoughts of a person?

This is what Brain fingerprint does. This is at present an experimental technique only. But first a little bit about its origin.

THE INVENTOR

The inventor of this technique is Dr. Lawrence A. Farwell. He has invented, developed, proven, and patented the technique of Farwell Brain Fingerprinting. This is a new computer-based technology to identify the perpetrator of a crime accurately and scientifically by measuring brain-wave responses to crime-relevant words or pictures presented on a computer screen. Farwell Brain Fingerprinting has proven 100% accurate in over 120 tests, including tests on FBI agents, tests for a US intelligence agency and for the US Navy, and tests on real-life situations including actual crimes.

Readers may want to know how brain-wave responses are measured. These are measured by a technique now routinely employed in most hospitals – EEG. Also known as Electroencephalogram, this technique records small electrical currents from the brain, just as ECG or Electrocardiogram does from the heart.

Brain Fingerprinting is based on the principle that the brain is central to all human acts. In a criminal act, there may or may not be many kinds of peripheral evidence, but the brain is always there, planning, executing, and recording the crime. The fundamental difference between a perpetrator and a falsely accused, innocent person is that the perpetrator, having committed the crime, has the details of the crime stored in his brain, and the innocent suspect does not. This is what Farwell Brain Fingerprinting detects scientifically.

Farwell Brain Fingerprinting matches evidence from a crime scene with evidence stored in the brain of the perpetrator, similarly to the way conventional fingerprinting matches fingerprints at the crime scene with the fingers of the perpetrator, and DNA fingerprinting matches biological samples from the crime scene with the DNA in the body of the perpetrator.

How the technology works

Readers may want to know how this technique works actually. Well, it as follows. Words or pictures relevant to a crime are flashed on a computer screen, along with other, irrelevant words or pictures. Electrical brain responses are measured non-invasively through a patented headband equipped with sensors. Dr. Farwell has discovered that a

specific brain-wave response called a MERMER (Memory and Encoding Related Multifaceted Electroencephalographic Response) is elicited when the brain processes noteworthy information it recognizes. Thus, when details of the crime that only the perpetrator would know are presented, a MERMER is emitted by the brain of a perpetrator, but not by the brain of an innocent suspect. In Farwell Brain Fingerprinting, a computer analyzes the brain response to detect the MERMER, and thus determines scientifically whether or not the specific crime-relevant information is stored in the brain of the suspect.

How does the technology compare with other similar lie detecting technologies? Conventional fingerprinting and DNA Fingerprinting match physical evidence from a crime scene with evidence on the person of the perpetrator. Similarly, Brain Fingerprinting matches informational evidence from the crime scene with evidence stored in the brain. It has been estimated that conventional fingerprints and DNA are available in only 1% of crimes. On the other hand, the brain and the evidence recorded in it are always there.

We tend to overlook this, but the fact is that in addition to the physical and circumstantial evidence that can be obtained from the crime scene and elsewhere, there is one ADDITIONAL place where an extensive record of the crime is stored: IN THE BRAIN OF THE PERPETRATOR. Brain Fingerprinting attempts to tap this new source! Now that this record can be tapped, criminal investigation, corporate security, and counterintelligence will be revolutionized.

Farwell Brain Fingerprinting allows evidence to be analyzed directly from the human brain, in an accurate, objective, non-stressful, non-invasive, and scientific manner. This breakthrough promises to revolutionize criminal investigations. Moreover, there is every reason to believe that this new science and technology will become admissible as evidence in court.

On the face of it the technique appears very similar to conventionall lie detection techniques conducted on a polygraphy. But the inventor of this technique claims that this has nothing to do with lie detection. Rather, it is a scientific way to determine if someone has committed a specific crime. One difference that does appear very prominent is that in Brain fingerprinting, no questions are asked and no answers are given. In conventional lie detection however, questions ARE asked and the accused’s responses to those questions are seen. As with DNA and fingerprints, the results are the same whether the person has lied or told the truth at any time.

An illustration of the powers of brain fingerprinting

On April 12, 1994, a young police officer walked into the police headquarters of a major metropolitan area. He had been accused on multiple counts of a felony drug charge. The evidence against him was substantial. His accuser, who had already confessed his own involvement, had identified the officer by name and description, and picked the officer's photograph out of a pictorial lineup. The accuser provided extensive details of meeting times and places, and exchanges of drugs and money. There was extensive corroborating evidence that the crimes had taken place. The officer denied any criminal activity. He admitted telephoning the accuser once (for a legitimate reason), but denied meeting him and denied all of the alleged drug-related transactions. The officer admitted having possessed the drug in question at certain times, but only under entirely legal and legitimate circumstances. Both men had passed polygraph tests, maintaining fundamentally contradictory accounts.

The officer met Dr. Lawrence A. Farwell, Chief Scientist and President of Human Brain Research Laboratory, in a small room at the police headquarters. Earlier, Dr. Farwell had already completed the process of Farwell Brain Fingerprinting Collection of Crime-Scene Evidence in conjunction with investigators. Dr. Farwell explained and initiated the process of Farwell Brain Fingerprinting Brain Evidence Collection using electroencephalographic (EEG) sensors attached to a headband that was placed on the officer's head and connected to the Farwell Brain Fingerprinting System. Then, seated in front of a computer screen, the officer began to observe words and phrases (evidence) which were flashed on one of the video monitors. Some of evidence was relevant to the crimes in question -- meeting places, sums of money, and vehicles and buildings in which drug transactions had allegedly taken place. On another video monitor, Dr. Farwell observed multicolored plots of the officer's brain responses to each of the items flashed on the monitor, along with matrices of numbers and other data.

After an hour or more, the Farwell Brain Fingerprinting Brain Evidence Collection was completed and Dr. Farwell entered the computer commands to implement the Farwell Brain Fingerprinting Computer Evidence Analysis. In less than a minute, a plot of the officer's brain responses appeared on the screen, along with the Farwell Brain Fingerprinting Scientific Result: "Information Absent".

Farwell Brain Fingerprinting Scientific Result of Information Absent means that the suspect’s brain did not contain a record of the evidence taken from the crime scene. Despite the testimony of his accuser and the extensive circumstantial evidence, Farwell Brain Fingerprinting proved that no crime-relevant evidence was stored in this officer's brain -- he did not know the details about the crime; he did not recognize the evidence that was flashed on the video monitor -- and therefore he could not possibly have committed the crime. The investigation was renewed, and there is now substantial, independent evidence that the officer was indeed innocent, and that his accuser and another individual framed the officer in order to deflect suspicion from another former police officer who had carried out the crimes of which the officer was accused. Farwell Brain Fingerprinting had cleared an innocent man.

Captions to figures:

farwell.jpg: The inventor of Brain Fingerprinting, Dr. Lawrence A. Farwell

pic001.jpg till pic003.jpg: People Undergoing Brain Fingerprinting

This article has (1623) words

Dr. Anil Aggrawal, M.D.

Professor of Forensic Medicine

Maulana Azad Medical College

New Delhi‑110002