How lie detectors can be fooled

NEW DELHI: Indian forensic scientists are worried that hardened offenders given to practising meditation might be able to disrupt brain-mapping procedures. The apprehension has unsettled experts at a time when they are involved in an initiative to expand the network of brain-mapping laboratories across India.

Meditation increases the incidence of alpha waves - the electromagnetic oscillations in the brain detected by EEG — during periods of relaxation.

Investigators administering the brain mapping test study EEG readings for signs of agitation produced by the act of lying. Alpha waves, however, indicate that the subject is relaxed and imply that no attempt to lie has been made. The waves increase when a person regularly practices meditation, said Ananda, a doctor who has practised yoga for several years.

Recently, at least 10 senior sessions judges from Gujarat, UP, MP, and Bihar attended a workshop at the Gujarat-based National Resource Centre for Forensic Psychology to understand brain-mapping and narco-analysis.

A judge who volunteered for a brain mapping test failed to convincingly lie to the psychologists. Some experts, however, said that those who practise meditation can indeed fool the system. At any rate, another judge said that a person cannot be convicted on the basis of the brain-mapping test alone.