Mind reader?
A
forensic technology developed in India sifts brain recordings for clues
to a suspect’s guilt or innocence. Many neuroscientists are skeptical,
but it is catching on in other countries
One day in 2021 an Indian student in her early
teens came to her family with some distressing news: At school, a man in
his 20s had called her into an empty classroom and raped her at
knifepoint. Later, after the student found out she was pregnant and
decided to abort, she filed a statement with the police.
The man
accused of the crime, Surjaram, denied everything and sought to be
released on bail. To prove his innocence, he asked to undergo three
forensic science tests, including one called brain electrical
oscillation signature profiling (BEOS).
During the
test, he would likely have sat quietly in an empty room, listening to a
series of short, first-person phrases recounting the crime scene—perhaps
“I called the girl into the room,” “I closed the door,” and “I pulled a
knife”—while a headset recorded his brain’s electrical activity.
Meanwhile, a computer monitored how his brain responded to each phrase,
looking for telltale signs that he had participated in the crime. In
Surjaram’s case, the results were what he hoped for: His brain signals
suggested he had no experience of these events, and was therefore
innocent.
***
read more: https://www.science.org/content/article/indian-police-are-trying-read-minds-suspects-over-neuroscientists-objections
