Brain fingerprinting

Brain fingerprinting (BF) is a lie detection technique which uses brain waves from a electroencephalography (EEG) to determine whether specific information is stored in the subject's cognitive memory. It was invented by Larry Farwell, a Harvard-graduated neuroscientist, and published in 1995. The technique involves presenting words, phrases, or pictures containing salient details about a crime on a computer screen, in a series with other, irrelevant stimuli to identify whether the suspect recognizes the crime-related items. Although brain fingerprinting has been used in investigations, the test results themselves can not be admitted as evidence in a legal trial.

The assumption underpinning the application of BF is that the culprit has concealed information about the crime stored in the brain and it can be revealed by analysing fluctuations in the brainwaves that measure a human's neurological activity. Brain fingerprinting relies on two major components, specificity and recognition, as it is assumed that the culprit of the crime will recognize certain details of the investigation whilst innocent subjects will not, based on the familiarity of the items presented. For example, only a guilty individual will have concealed information about the specific gun used in a crime. Provided by Wikipedia