CNN Headline News - Brain Fingerprinting
Reporter: Can lies detectors be fooled? A lot of experts say they can. Now one
researcher has an alternative that can sneak a peak into a subject's brain before he or
she has time to fake a response. CNN's Dick Wilson reports on Tomorrow Today.
Reporter: Confessed double agent, the man responsible for what many consider the most
serious betrayal in the history of the CIA. Even while he was selling out other US agents
to the Soviets, Aims managed to pass polygraph tests that were supposed to find traitors.
It was the latest major incident to cast doubt on the value of conventional lie detectors,
which work by detecting signs of stress like a pounding heart or elevated blood pressure.
Dr. Farwell: The difficulty with conventional lie detectors is that an individual may
fake a response and fool the system in that way or an individual may just be very anxious
even though he is innocent, and may have a stress response.
Reporter: Lawrence Farwell has come up with a different kind of lie detector that he
says may be hard to fool. This system watches for a particular brain response that happens
automatically whenever the person sees something familiar.
Dr. Farwell: What you do is you take information that only the criminal would know, for
example if he had robbed a ban, he would know certain details about that specific bank
robbery. You flash that information on the screen and you measure the brain responses. If
the brain response contains what is called a MERMER, that indicates he recognizes that
information. If he recognizes the information, he must have been there.
Reporter: This kind of MERMER is not like a heart murmur or a whisper. It's short for a
Memory and Encoded Related Encephalographic Response. Farewell's system is seen here as a
demonstration. Because the response is automatic, there is no way to suppress it and fool
the system.
Dr. Farwell: We're measuring simply: Is that information located in the brain? If that
information is stored in the brain, it means the individual was there and did it. If not,
then not.
Reporter: Since the system is simply measuring recognition, it would have to be applied
carefully to police work. For example, a person found on a murder scene would recognize
it, but that wouldn't mean he or she was the killer. Farwell says he's had some interest
from police departments. He expects his system to be ruled admissible in court as long as
the person giving the test is properly trained.
And Farwell says his system might have sniffed out Aldrich Ames' deception, when
conventional lie detectors tests did not.
Dick Wilson, CNN, reporting.
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