The Truth Machine

There are actually three companies offering interrogation services with functional MRI (fMRI), the third is Cognitive Engineering, LLC, (Cognitive-Eng.org) with capabilities expanding in several countries including USA, Europe and South America. In addition to interrogation, CogEng has employed various neuroimaging techniques for validation of pain and cognitive impairment.

By means of analogy, although polygraph is not accepted in the courts, its use is popular, helpful, and has widespread application for pre-employment, company investigation, interrogation, vetting for sensitive positions, etc.  Therefore, the lack of current acceptance by US courts of polygraph has not stopped its use as much as it has served to better define its best areas of application. Similarly, there are several very reasonable legal and security applications for functional MR imaging, a painless, safe and totally non-invasive and in the opinion of many respected scientists a highly accurate methodology.

Uses of fMRI include interrogation for truth/ deception, demonstrating adverse central nervous system effects of medications (depression, agitation, aggression, suicidal thought, drug-seeking), validating the sensation of pain, and documenting cognitive impairment.  To effectively extract intelligence, a combination of scanning techniques must be used, to collect truth/deception signatures, but to also look for recognition of faces, objects and places, emotional states, and underlying structural integrity of the brain.

CogEng, for example, employs this more robust approach, with application envisioned beyond criminal investigation, to include security investigations, pre-employment screening, national security, occupational suitability and effective mind reading and predictive protocols. FMRI can be expected to be used with increasing frequency for interrogation, to identify brain alterations due to prescription medications, to identify and quantify cognitive impairment and pain, and possibly determine intent.

Posted by Donald H. Marks, MD PhD on Jul 12, 2010 at 12:09 PM