Controversy Over Brain Fingerprinting Proposal

[George W. Maschke]

(While this post is not directly related to polygraph policy, I'm posting it here because the topic has relevance to the detection of deception and is likely to be of interest to those concerned with polygraph policy.)

If you've been following the Polygraph News page on AntiPolygraph.org in recent months, you're probably aware of Dr. Larry Farwell's "brain fingerprinting" technique for assessing whether a person recognizes a stimulus.

InfoSeek founder Steve Kirsch proposed the adaption of brain fingerpriting for the screening of airline passengers in an October 2001 article titled "Identifying terrorists before they strike" that is available on his website. The above-referenced article also includes feedback from readers, a link to an appendix, and links to related web pages.

In a 3 October 2001 article titled "Brain-scans can defeat terrorism, InfoSeek founder claims," Thomas C. Greene of The Register lambasted Kirsch's proposal.

Kirsch's spirited response to Green's article is also available on Kirch's website.