Brain electrical oscillation signature profiling(beos)

Brain electrical oscillation signature profiling.

1. Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature Profiling(BEOS) And Polygraph Submitted To- Dr. Sapna Sharma Submitted By- Nitesh Roll.No-1323 Class-M.sc Forensic Science (Previous)

2. BEOS It is an EEG technique by which a suspect’s participation in a crime is detected by eliciting electrophysiological impulse. T his diagram showing a field potential recording from rat hippocampus.

3. It is a non-invasive , scientific technique with a degree with a degree of sensitivity and a neuro - psychological method of interrogation which is also referred to as Brain Fingerprinting. Neuro -psychology is the study of the brain related to the specific psychological processes and behaviors and aims to understand how behavior and cognition are influenced by brain functioning .

4. This technique is not for interrogation . It does not require any questions or any answer. It reveals objectively whether information is present in the brain, regardless of whether any false or truthful statements are made by the subject . The brain does the talking. The FBI agents were identified with 100% accuracy.

5. Brief History The methodology was developed by Champadi Raman Mukundan , Neuroscientist, former professor and head of Clinical psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health And Neuro science( Banglore ). While he worked as a Research Consultant to TIFAC-DFS Project on ‘ Normative Data for Electrical Activation Profiling’.

6. The Concept Mukundan had some data on the links between the brain and memory , and he translated it into a set of 11 physiological variables. If all eleven variables come up positive on an electroencephalogram , then the statement being read out to a suspect was assumed to be true.

7. Knowing and Remembering are two Neuro -cognitive processes, of which- Knowing refers to the cognitive process of recognition with or without familiarity , Remembrance is the recall of episodic and autobiographical details from a person’s life. Recognition or knowledge is a conceptual representation ,acquired through various means of communication. Remembrance is the neuro -cognitive process of bringing personal past to the present and thus involve personal experience of an individual which was gained by personal participation .

8. Role in Detecting Deception In BEOS test a EEG cap attached with 32 electrode ,32 channels recording of the electrical activity of the brain was carried by placing30 cephalic electrode with reference electrodes in the ear lobes and 2 channels for recording the eye movements. Initially the baseline recording was done with eye closed and opened. Then neutral probes were presented before presenting crime/event related probes in different scenarios to the subject and the EEG is acquired and analyzed electrical oscillation from the brain were picked up using electrodes placed at standard position .

9. BEOS contains :- Experiential Knowledge[EN] Primary Processing[PP] Encoding[EN] Emotional Response[ER] Activation Suppression[As] Inattention[IN] Probes

10. PROBES A probe is a short sentence used in BEOS recording for referring to a specific component of an action or a proposed sensory motor experience that is expected to have taken place in a person, involved in a episode. The numbers of words used in a probes decides its length, with a minimum of 2-3 words, and the maximum length not exceeding. 3 sec. for thir presentation.

11. TYPES OF PROBES Neutral Probe:- Which are mere sematic presentation not referring to any experiential event, and they are not expected to cue any remembrance. Control Probe:- It referring to verified autobiographic episode in the life of the suspect, which are unconnected with the episode being investigated.

12. Positive findings using control probes are considered a process of self validation of the test procedure as they represent verified. Target A Probe:- These probes are presented in different scenarios and they are designed to present the various event starting with the happening antecedent to the main episode related to the crime. The scenarios then shift to unfolding the crime and the activities following the crime .

13. Target B Probe:- They refer to the activities of the suspect according to his own version, which he considers could give him immunity as they could demonstrate his innocence.

14. How it works?? The BEOS profiling program uses verbal probes to trigger remembrance of specific events investigated, which from the autobiographic episode of a suspect or individual who was present when the related event took place.The aim of verbal statement uses as probe is to cue an individual to remember a specific associated sensory an or / motor response and other component of the event.

15. BEOS profiling is a technique for extracting an electrophysiological signature of an experience during its remembrance from the electrical oscillations of the brain of a suspect, whether the experience relates to the significant personal episodes or participation in a criminal activity. The awareness of the remembered episode is called Experiential Knowledge. The electrical oscillation/activity related to remembrance is called the Signature of the experience.

16. An extensive normative study has already been completed by TIFAC,New Delhi and DFS,Gandhinagar and the data on the sensitivity and specificity which supports its use in the forensic scenario. Mukundan says the BEOS test has a 95% accuracy rate.

17. Criticism Supreme court judgment on DDTs:- DDT ( Deception Detection Tests) like N arco test, Brain Mapping, and BEOS. May 5,2010 SC states related to the involuntary administration of DDTs for the purpose of improving investigation efforts in criminal cases are questioned on the account of violation of fundamental rights like Right against self –incrimination [ article20(3)]and right to life and personal liberty (article21).

18. New York Times reported, leading North American Neuroscientist call its use Fasinating , Ridiculous, Chilling and Unconscionable and Indian scientists agree.

19. D rawback Recognition may arise in a variety of ways some quite innocent. This test appears to misunderstand with memory, which does not record and recall information like a video recorder, but layers memory over memory , changes,losses , restructure and adapts to continual additional of new informations . Its true that there may be some people who succeed in forgetting, either intentionally or otherwise.

20. Cases related to BEOS Maharastra v. Sharma In which Aditi sharma and Pravin Khandewal are the suspects. After conducting BEOS aditi revealed the presence of experiential knowledge on probes depicting her having an affair with udit . Also aditi have experiential knowledge about having a plan to murder udit by giving him Arsenic and having knowledge about buying Arsenic from a shop, calling up udit and giving him the poison laced Prasad.

21. Chembur case:- Amin was accused of hammering Randullar singh . Reports of amin’s tests were positive. The intentions was clearly to murder R. singh .

22. POLYGRAPH Polygraph is a combination of instruments combined such that they measure bodily activities and record any minor change occurring in those activities and a graph is drawn for these activities from which it may be concluded if a person is lying or not. Polygraph is made of two words ; Poly which means Many and graph means writing.

23. HISTORY In 1878 when Angelo Mosso developed an instrument Plethysmograph . Lombroso is credited as the first criminologist who used an instrument called Hydrosphymograph designed to measure physiological response in criminal investigation in 1895. B sticker developed a method to measure Galvanic skin response in 1897 which later became a component of polygraph.

24. In 1906, Dr. James MacKenzie developed Ink polygraph which was for clinical use . Vittorio Benussi develop breathing based detection in 1914. This led to development of an early form of liedetctor by Dr. William Morston in 1915. lindbergh’s kidnapping case is an important in which Dr. Marston offered his services to Lindbergh’s family in 1930. The modern polygraph was developed by John A.larson in 1921. Later on it was further modified by Leonarde Keeler. He opened keeler institute which was the first institute in the world devoted specifically to polygraphy .

25. Principle of Polygraphy Polygraph is based on a simple Principle that changes in bodily activities occur if there are some emotional changes. These changes are involuntary and automatic ;caused by the automatic nervous system which is a part of peripheral nervous system .Autonomic nervous system comprises of nerves that lead from brain and spinal cord to the smooth muscle in many parts of body,glands,heart

26. Component of Polygraph Polygraph contains three basic components: The Pneumograph : It is also known as Pneumatograph or Spirograph . It records the force of chest movement and its velocity while the subject breathes The galvanograph : This unit of polygraph records the variation sweating pattern while answering the questions asked.

27. The cardio sphygmograph : This unit of polygraph is same as the one used to record blood pressure for clinical use. Its purpose is to measure blood pressure and record heart beat pattern and any changes in these during in test phase are very sensitively recorded.It is a very sensitive device consisting of a cuff which is wrapped around a subject’s arm.

28. Procedure of Polygraph Polygraph conducted in three or four interview phases:- The P re-test interview: The examiner provides information about the examination ,equipment and ensure that person is familiar of his legal rights.This interview is generally focused on collecting information on subject’s backround and is used for desiging questions.

29. The stimulation test phase :- I n this phase examiner demonstrate how a polygraph works. Its goal is to make subject believe that this combination can each their lies and differentiate between truth and deception. It is also known as stim test and acquaintance test. There are two common methods which are cureently in use for this purpose .1 Deck of card method,2 Number method.

30. The in-test phase:- After the end of pre test interview, the actual response recording starts. Subject’s initial baseline response is recorded for 10 to 15 sec before the questioning starts. The examiner waits for 15 to 20 sec after completion of each question before he asks another question. In general , examiner conducts this test in series and each series consists of 10 questions and each question being repeated 2 to 3 times.

31. The post-test phase:- It is done after in-test phase. This phase may or may not be conducted. In this subject may be asked questions about his response to any particular question. This is mostly done when the examiner thinks that subject is employing some countermeasures or result is inconclusive.

32. Polygraph Questioning T echniques Relevant/Irrelevant Test(R/I):- It was the earliest form of polygraph questioning technique introduced by William Marston. Larson used this technique with some modifications. In this test only two types of questions are asked;relevant and irrelevant.Relevant questions are named as such as they are relevant to the issue for which polygraph is being conducted.

33. Control Question Test(CQT):- CQT was introduced by john E.Reid during 1945-1947 as an improvement to the existing method of R/I test. There are three types of questions in this method; irrelevant, control, relevant question. control questions or comparison question are designed such that they arouse a subject who is non-deceptive more compared to a subject who is deceptive.

34. Directed Lie Test (DLP):- It is a more standardised form of CQT and it was developed to remove the problem of non- standardisation associated with CQT. In this form of test, the subject is asked to lie to the questions asked. In this method examiner instructs the subject to think before answering which is also one of the major fallacy of this test. Guilty Knowledge Test(GKL):- Concealed information Test and peak of tension test are the other names of this test. This test is one of the more accurate method of polygraph test.

35. T he biggest advantage of this test is that answers to the questions asked are only known to the interrogator and culprit and not an innocent suspects.The limitation of this test is that not always, the concealed information is available to interrogator. Searching Peak of Tension Test(SPOT ):- This test removes the limitation of GKT,i.e . unavailability of concealed information to interrogator. Other form of testing methods used are Mixed General Question Test(MGQT), Slient Answer Test(SAT).

36. VIOLATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS Right against self- incrimination:- People of India has been provided a right under Article20(3) of The constitution of India which states that no person accused of an offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself/herself. Case study: smt. Selvi and others v. state of karnatata

37. Right to life and personal liberty:- Article 21 of constitution of India provides this right to all Indian citizens. Recently courts have shown a positive attitude towards these tests, recently Tamil high court ruled in favour of polygraph in Dinesh Dalmia v.State of Tamil Nadu stating that scientific method of investigation may be used to descover the truth if accused refuses to cooperate.

38. Ethical issues This test has been called unethical due to following reasons:- P olygraph is seen as a psychological third degree torture used by investigators to extract confession. During the pre- test and stim test; subject is told that this test is capable of detecting lies which is not true as it can only detect emotional responses which can be controlled. Some people have reported that personal questions not related to the case whatever was asked to them during polygraph.