The Man has his fingers in my brain!

[Sofa_King]

One of the benefits of having a list of the latest General Accounting Office’s reports pop up daily in my inbox is that I occasionally run across things which are… interesting. Here’s one of them:

d0222.pdf

That’s an Adobe Acrobat file, but since it’s a public document I can quote lavishly. Check it:

Brain Fingerprinting is a proposed investigative technique that incorporates the use of a test administered to a subject that consists of specific information related to a particular event or activity. According to its developer, the technique requires a sufficient amount of specific information about the event or activity that would be known only to the perpetrator and the investigator. The developer has indicated, therefore, that Brain Fingerprinting is not designed as a screening tool—a function that involves questioning a subject about events unknown to the investigator. In administering the Brain Fingerprinting test, a subject is shown a sequence of various stimuli on a computer screen in the form of words, phrases, or pictures—some that are related to the event or activity and others that are irrelevant. An electroencephalograph (EEG) records the subject’s electrical brain activity, which appears as a waveform. The technique employs a statistical method to analyze the components of the waveform to determine whether or not the subject recognizes the information. According to the developer, an investigator would be able to use this information as evidence for or against a suspect. For example, the developer has indicated that the technique could be used to determine whether a suspect has knowledge of details about a crime.

That’s totally whack, no? I haven’t read the whole thing, but later on the introduction mentions that this device isn’t very useful yet as an investigative or screening tool, but others think it may have potential.

Anyway, I thought you folks might like to learn a little about this interesting technique.

[Doctor_Jackson]

The Man has his fingers in my brain!

For some people I know, The Man would have to be a proctologist.

Interesting article, Sofa.

[Mojo]

Way ahead of you- I’ve stuffed my ears and nostrils with aluminum foil so he can’t get his fingers in there.

Seriously, its kinda scary when life imitates bad sci-fi.

[micco]

I think this is basically an extension of the phenomena discussed in this thread over in IMHO. In that thread, ianzin is asking for opinions on the plausibility of guessing a number a person is thinking given certain physiological clues. The EEG used in this “brain fingerprinting” is just another way to gather information about a person’s response to stimuli.

There are a lot more precise methods being investigated which use functional MRI and other techniques to determine exactly which part of a person’s brain is active during a given task. It’s been demonstrated that a person uses a different part of their brain when looking at pictures they’re familiar with than they do when looking at unfamiliar scenes, and this can be used to determine whether a person has seen something they claim to have seen or vice versa. However, shoving a suspect into an MRI tunnel isn’t as practical as using an EEG.