F110. Using brain fingerprinting in the detection of concealed information in Egyptians

Abstract

Introduction Brain fingerprinting is a forensic science technique that uses electroencephalography (EEG) to determine whether specific information is stored in a subject’s brain. It does this by measuring electrical brainwave responses to pictures that are presented on a computer screen; P300 wave is a specific event-related potential (ERP) component that has the potential for detecting concealed information in the brain. Objectives: this work aimed to evaluate the appearance of P 300 wave in response to relevant visual stimuli and its absence to irrelevant ones and to evaluate the latency and amplitude of P300 wave in response to well-known persons and places. Methods This is a cross sectional prospective study carried out on 225 normal individuals at Clinical Neurophysiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University. It comprised both sexes aged from 18 to 70 years old; participants were divided into 3 groups. An endogenous ERP;P300 wave was seen evoked in response to rare, presented, recognized, meaningful stimulus, the peak amplitude was calculated and peak latency was measured from the time of stimulus onset. Results A photo of a person or place known to the test subject elicited a well-marked P300 response, while that of an unknown personality or place didn’t generate noticeable response. P300 wave latency and amplitude was recorded. There was a significant association between P300 amplitude and latency with age and educational level. Conclusion P300 wave is valuable in detecting concealed knowledge stored in the participant’s brain and is an objective and reliable test.