Brain,
lies and
anti-terrorism, Olivier Ouillier
The last couple of years' attempts in Asia and Europe,
as well as the 7th July tragedy, in London,
prove that no country is immune to terrorism. French and British governments
have spent huge sums in the use of the most up-to-date scientific and
technological means, aiming the control of public and private spaces, networks
(and its filing for a year) and people allocation, similar to what happens in
the USA, after
September 2005. In
Great Britain,
the CCTV
used in public spaces has divided the public opinion, even being known
that they have contributed for last July's Enquiry success on explosives
carriers. Decodifying and mind-reading: Although apparently, the
human eye is
superior to the detection machines, the new "intelligent" cameras,
fruit of
behavior neurosciences and human movement science experts’ cooperation
have given big steps in the recognition of suspect attitudes. Behavior analysis
in situ and the biometric database have been used by Great
Britain, France
and United States,
being this last one investing in a brain study as a monitoring factor. The
credited Nature magazine mentions conclusions of a study sponsored by the
Defense Advanced Projects Agency, in which, from FMRI (Functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging), will be possible to track lies through brain traces. The
technique consists of asking people to lie (or not) about having a certain game
card, comparing afterwards the brain data between the "truthful" and
the "liars". However, the application of this technique in real situations
is controverse. Firstly, because it's impossible to avoid lower to two
millimeters in a conscious person's head, so that the data is trustworthy.
Secondly, because the referred Nature experiments, proving the front lobe
activation when someone lies, don't indicate an exclusive link, according to
what happens when it reflects or recalls facts. Finally, and although it is
said that this technique is effective in 99 per cent of the cases, the most
complicated issue is related to a
terrorist referential that doesn't consider
himself as one, as the socio-political studies suggest - how to track the lie?
Nevertheless the numerous articles that prestigious international magazines
released since 2001, on lies detecting assisted by brain imaging, the generalization
to the anti-terrorist battlefield is abusive, once the brain interaction with
the environment (political, physical and social) is decisive determining human
behavior. Although an American company proposal already for 2006 of a paid
public service concerning lies detection, the one's direct mind-reading is an
illusion. Legitimate ethical doubts: It is to be feared that these methods
might one day be used as advantage, not to explore a terrorist's brain, but
i.e. for a company to select its employees or for a Court to go through with
legal procedures, in order that a bad use of the neurosciences raises deep
ethical issues. Therefore, the
American NHS has started to sponsor conducive studies for the establishing of
specific rules concerning brain imaging use in the legal, industrial and
medical fields. It's unquestionable that FMRI made possible a great
progress in neurosciences preventing and treating many diseases and
pathologies, like Parkinson's disease, having behavior neurosciences benefited
in society and people way of working. However, the anti-terrorist battle cannot
confine to a lab--it has to recur to the social cognitive neurosciences and
political and economical sciences' cooperation, to find effective solutions.
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