FAQ
DR. FARWELL: Brain Fingerprinting testing is a scientific technique to determine whether or not specific information is stored in an individual’s brain. We do this by measuring brain-wave responses to words, phrases, sounds or pictures presented by a computer. We present details about a crime, training or other types of specific knowledge, mixed in a sequence with other, irrelevant items. We use details that the person being tested would have encountered in the course of committing a crime, but that an innocent person would have no way of knowing. We can tell by the brainwave response if a person recognizes the stimulus or not. If the suspect recognizes the details of the crime, this indicates that he has a record of the crime stored in his brain.
DR. FARWELL: In a criminal case, we utilize information gathered from investigations to identify those details of the crime that a perpetrator would have to have encountered in the commission of the crime; details that the brain records and remembers. There are certain kinds of crime details that are insignificant in a usual crime scene investigation, but which become very significant in a Brain Fingerprinting test. These include things a perpetrator would remember doing or encountering in the course of committing a crime, such as knocking over a pink flamingo on the lawn, running through tall grass, what type of weapon was used, etc. Once we have gathered a significant number of memorable details, we determine which of those would be known to the general public (via press reports, etc) and which would be known only to the police investigators and the perpetrator of the crime. From this information we are able to construct the actual Brain Fingerprinting test, which includes targets, probes, and irrelevant stimuli.
In counterterrorism applications we construct tests with information appropriate for the subjects, information that would identify the individual as, for instance, an Al-Qaeda-trained terrorist or a bomb maker. We define specific information that indicates whether or not a person’s brain contains the information in question. For example, we have conducted tests showing that Brain Fingerprinting can detect FBI agents and bomb-makers with over 99% accuracy, based on the unique knowledge that they have.
DR. FARWELL: A Brain Fingerprinting test determines scientifically whether or not specific information is stored in a brain. In the case of a crime, we use information that would be known only to the perpetrator and the investigators, and not to an innocent suspect. The system makes a determination of “information present” or “information absent,” and a statistical confidence for the determination. This is done by a mathematical algorithm, and does not depend on subjective interpretation of the data.
DR. FARWELL: Brain Fingerprinting testing has proven to be highly accurate in over 200 tests, which included actual criminal cases, tests on FBI agents and tests on military medical experts. In all but six of these cases, the system produced a determination of either “information present” or “information absent.” 100% of these determinations were correct. In six cases, insufficient information was available and no determination was made. Dr. Farwell, the inventor of Brain Fingerprinting technology, discovered that the P300 was one aspect of a larger brain-wave response that he named and patented, a P300-MERMER (memory and encoding related multifaceted electroencephalographic response). The discovery of the P300-MERMER allows the results gained through the P300 testing to be even more accurate. Since the inclusion of the P300-MERMER in the brain-wave analysis algorithm, Brain Fingerprinting testing has made a definitive determination in every test.