The Brain Fingerprinting Technique seeks to determine whether a subject has specific knowledge of a crime by measuring and analyzing split-second spikes in electrical activity in the brain when it responds to something it recognizes. It has a big potential in the area of law enforcement and intelligence but it needs to overcome skepticism of some experts who are understandably reluctant to embrace it.

The detection technique is based on the premise that a person who has never seen the crime scene will show no reaction. On the same premise, the real offender’s brain would involuntarily register knowledge of the crime when shown details of it that only he would know. Under this system, brain activity is picked up through electrodes attached to the scalp and is measured by an electroencephalograph (EEG) as a wave form.