Academic literature on the topic 'Brain Fingerprinting'

Technology for detecting incriminating knowledge in suspects, such as ‘brain fingerprinting’, raises several ethical and practical difficulties. In a recent article, McGorrery suggests that criminals may use propranolol to modify their memories for a crime and thereby trick ‘brain fingerprinting’ technology. While we agree that there are many limitations and concerns regarding the use of such technology in criminal proceedings, we explain why propranolol usage by offenders is unlikely to undermine knowledge detection technology.

Criminal proof and crime detection are the most important issues that receive the attention of criminal investigation officials, aggrieved parties, and the judiciary. It requires a strong evidence of crime perpetration to be attributed to the criminal. No truth can be established without an evidence. The perpetration of crimes, especially terrorist crimes, has witnessed great development. Accordingly, there is a severe need for using advanced scientific techniques to establish guilt. These techniques should be based on carefully studied scientific evidences. Brain Fingerprinting, the subject of this study, is one such advanced technique. It is defined as: “A method for interpreting the electric signals made by a human brain when seeing some pictures of information related to a crime or event”. The brain sends waves and signals related to the crime contained in the human memory. These waves and signals are recorded and analyzed when restoring such information through a computer. They are given the code (p300).

Mestrado em Bioética
Master Degree Course in Bioethics
Com este trabalho procuramos analisar a problemática das novas tecnologias no acesso ao conteúdo do cérebro, nomeadamente o uso dos potenciais evocados cognitivos (sobretudo o P300) sob a forma de Brain Fingerprinting, pondo à prova a fiabilidade do método e eventuais consequências éticas da sua aplicação. Abordaram-se conceitos como mente e seu conteúdo, no que se refere à comunicação e linguagem como forma de interacção social, sobretudo na capacidade de fazer uso da verdade ou da mentira, como escolha consciente e individual. Inerente à mentira abordou-se o conceito de emoção para compreender como funciona o tradicional polígrafo e de que forma o Brain Fingerprinting poderá trazer vantagens. A nível experimental avaliamos a utilização do P300 como "detector de culpa" em 20 indivíduos, tendo-se excluído 5, divididos num grupo controlo (n=8) e experimental (n=7 participantes num furto simulado), em duas experiências com estímulos visuais: experiência 1 com palavras e experiência 2 com imagens. Na análise visual individual verificou-se maior eficácia das imagens para a detecção correcta dos indivíduos (50% vs. 37,5% para os inocentes e 28,6% vs. 0% para os culpados). Nos culpados as palavras deram origem a uma percentagem elevada de falsos negativos (57,1% vs. 28,6% com imagens), salientando-se uma baixa taxa de falsos positivos em ambas as experiências. Na análise visual dos grupos as imagens parecem ser também mais eficazes na detecção correcta de ambos os perfis (culpados e inocentes), enquanto as palavras só identificam correctamente os inocentes. Da análise estatística intra e intergrupos obteve-se um "perfil inocente" em ambos os grupos, nas duas experiências. Neste estudo os nossos melhores resultados só identificaram correctamente 50% dos inocentes e 28,6% dos culpados (com imagens) o que se encontra muito longe dos 100% obtidos por Farwell e Smith (2001). Por fim, levamos a cabo uma discussão bioética debruçando-nos sobre a licitude deste tipo de metodologia, que promete aceder aos pensamentos, criando uma nova noção de dignidade, privacidade e autonomia. A discussão termina com a noção de responsabilização individual, abrangendo o direito inalienável à liberdade de acção e pensamento, inerente à espécie humana.
With the present work we intend to approach the problem of the use of new technologies as a mean to gain access to mental events, such as the use of Brain Fingerprinting. We will test the reliability of such method and discuss its ethical implications. We will approach concepts such as the mind and its content, concerning communication and language as a social interaction tool, and the ability to tell the truth or lie as a conscious and individual choice. Concerning deception, we approach the concept of emotion in order to understand the functioning of the traditional Polygraph and the way in which the use of Brain Fingerprinting may be advantageous. We experimentally assessed the use of the P300 event related potential as a "guilt detector", relying on a sample of 20 subjects (15+5 excluded from the analysis), divided into control (n = 8) and experimental (n = 7 subjects who simulated a theft in a mock-crime scenario) groups. There were two experiments with visual stimuli: experiment 1 with words and experiment 2 with pictures. Visual analysis of individual records revealed greater accuracy on the use of images to correctly detect subjects (50% vs. 37,5% for innocents and 28,6% vs. 0% of correctly detected subjects for the guilty condition). For guilty subjects, words led to a high percentage of false negatives (57,1% vs. 28,6 for pictures). A low percentage of false alarms were observed for both experiences. From the visual analysis of groups we are led to conclude that pictures seem to be once again more effective on the detection of both profiles (guilty and innocent), while words are only effective for the detection of innocent subjects. Statistical analysis did not discriminate between profiles, as we obtained constant "innocent" results for both experiments and groups. On the present study the best results we achieved were a 50% rate of identification for innocents and 28,6% for guilty subjects (with pictures). This contrasts with the rate of 100% obtained by Farwell and Smith (2001). Finally, we entail on a bioethical discussion concerning the acceptability of this kind of methodology, which promises access to thoughts, thus creating a new notion of dignity, privacy and autonomy. The discussion ends with the notion of individual responsibility, embracing the inalienable right to freedom of action and thought, inherent to the human species.

Mestrado em Bioética
Master Degree Course in Bioethics
Com este trabalho procuramos analisar a problemática das novas tecnologias no acesso ao conteúdo do cérebro, nomeadamente o uso dos potenciais evocados cognitivos (sobretudo o P300) sob a forma de Brain Fingerprinting, pondo à prova a fiabilidade do método e eventuais consequências éticas da sua aplicação. Abordaram-se conceitos como mente e seu conteúdo, no que se refere à comunicação e linguagem como forma de interacção social, sobretudo na capacidade de fazer uso da verdade ou da mentira, como escolha consciente e individual. Inerente à mentira abordou-se o conceito de emoção para compreender como funciona o tradicional polígrafo e de que forma o Brain Fingerprinting poderá trazer vantagens. A nível experimental avaliamos a utilização do P300 como "detector de culpa" em 20 indivíduos, tendo-se excluído 5, divididos num grupo controlo (n=8) e experimental (n=7 participantes num furto simulado), em duas experiências com estímulos visuais: experiência 1 com palavras e experiência 2 com imagens. Na análise visual individual verificou-se maior eficácia das imagens para a detecção correcta dos indivíduos (50% vs. 37,5% para os inocentes e 28,6% vs. 0% para os culpados). Nos culpados as palavras deram origem a uma percentagem elevada de falsos negativos (57,1% vs. 28,6% com imagens), salientando-se uma baixa taxa de falsos positivos em ambas as experiências. Na análise visual dos grupos as imagens parecem ser também mais eficazes na detecção correcta de ambos os perfis (culpados e inocentes), enquanto as palavras só identificam correctamente os inocentes. Da análise estatística intra e intergrupos obteve-se um "perfil inocente" em ambos os grupos, nas duas experiências. Neste estudo os nossos melhores resultados só identificaram correctamente 50% dos inocentes e 28,6% dos culpados (com imagens) o que se encontra muito longe dos 100% obtidos por Farwell e Smith (2001). Por fim, levamos a cabo uma discussão bioética debruçando-nos sobre a licitude deste tipo de metodologia, que promete aceder aos pensamentos, criando uma nova noção de dignidade, privacidade e autonomia. A discussão termina com a noção de responsabilização individual, abrangendo o direito inalienável à liberdade de acção e pensamento, inerente à espécie humana.
With the present work we intend to approach the problem of the use of new technologies as a mean to gain access to mental events, such as the use of Brain Fingerprinting. We will test the reliability of such method and discuss its ethical implications. We will approach concepts such as the mind and its content, concerning communication and language as a social interaction tool, and the ability to tell the truth or lie as a conscious and individual choice. Concerning deception, we approach the concept of emotion in order to understand the functioning of the traditional Polygraph and the way in which the use of Brain Fingerprinting may be advantageous. We experimentally assessed the use of the P300 event related potential as a "guilt detector", relying on a sample of 20 subjects (15+5 excluded from the analysis), divided into control (n = 8) and experimental (n = 7 subjects who simulated a theft in a mock-crime scenario) groups. There were two experiments with visual stimuli: experiment 1 with words and experiment 2 with pictures. Visual analysis of individual records revealed greater accuracy on the use of images to correctly detect subjects (50% vs. 37,5% for innocents and 28,6% vs. 0% of correctly detected subjects for the guilty condition). For guilty subjects, words led to a high percentage of false negatives (57,1% vs. 28,6 for pictures). A low percentage of false alarms were observed for both experiences. From the visual analysis of groups we are led to conclude that pictures seem to be once again more effective on the detection of both profiles (guilty and innocent), while words are only effective for the detection of innocent subjects. Statistical analysis did not discriminate between profiles, as we obtained constant "innocent" results for both experiments and groups. On the present study the best results we achieved were a 50% rate of identification for innocents and 28,6% for guilty subjects (with pictures). This contrasts with the rate of 100% obtained by Farwell and Smith (2001). Finally, we entail on a bioethical discussion concerning the acceptability of this kind of methodology, which promises access to thoughts, thus creating a new notion of dignity, privacy and autonomy. The discussion ends with the notion of individual responsibility, embracing the inalienable right to freedom of action and thought, inherent to the human species.

The use of electroencephalogram (EEG), an electrophysiological monitoring method for recording the brain activity, for authentication has attracted the interest of researchers for over a decade. In addition to exhibiting qualities of biometric-based authentication, they are revocable, impossible to mimic, and resistant to coercion attacks. However, EEG signals carry a wealth of information about an individual and can reveal private information about the user. This brings significant privacy issues to EEG-based authentication systems as they have access to raw EEG signals. This thesis proposes a privacy-preserving EEG-based authentication system that preserves the privacy of the user by not revealing the raw EEG signals while allowing the system to authenticate the user accurately. In that, perceptual hashing is utilized and instead of raw EEG signals, their perceptually hashed values are used in the authentication process. In addition to describing the authentication process, algorithms to compute the perceptual hash are developed based on two feature extraction techniques. Experimental results show that an authentication system using perceptual hashing can achieve performance comparable to a system that has access to raw EEG signals if enough EEG channels are used in the process. This thesis also presents a security analysis to show that perceptual hashing can prevent information leakage.

Les maladies du bois de la vigne (MDBs) et plus particulièrement l’esca, sont devenues en l’espace de deux décennies l’objet de préoccupations majeures puisqu’elles mettent en danger la pérennité de nombreux vignobles partout dans le monde. En Tunisie, ces maladies sont peu connues mais elles semblent être en pleine expansion et, en France, environ 13% du vignoble est improductif à cause des dépérissements qu’elles provoquent. Pour lutter contre les MDBs, les filières viticoles françaises et tunisiennes sont actuellement dans une impasse technique car elles ne disposent d’aucune méthode de lutte chimique « curative ». Dans ce contexte, l’objectif de cette thèse est de (i) déterminer quels agents pathogènes sont responsables des dégradations du bois de la vigne en Tunisie ? Les symptômes correspondent-ils à ceux de l’esca ? Existe-t-il une spécificité des agents pathogènes chez les ceps tunisiens ? Aussi (ii) afin de lutter contre ces maladies du bois (MDBs), de potentiels agents de biocontrôle bactériens ont été recherchés dans les parties ligneuses de ceps sélectionnés dans des vignobles tunisiens. Ils ont été caractérisés et des essais de protection in planta ont été réalisés. [...] Ces champignons ont été identifiés au niveau morphologique et moléculaire. Leur pathogénicité a été confirmée après inoculation sur jeunes plants de vigne. Des travaux originaux basés sur la co-inoculation de plants de vigne par ces 3 pathogènes ont montré qu’ils pouvaient rentrer en compétition entre eux au sein du végétal. Par ailleurs, sur le même thème, 2 autres pathogènes des MDBs, i.e. Phomopsis viticola et Diploidia seriata, ont été isolés dans une autre étude à partir de ceps prélevés dans la même région en Tunisie. Dans une deuxième étape, la microflore bactérienne colonisant les tissus ligneux de vignes prélevées dans le nord de la Tunisie a été étudiée afin de rechercher des agents de lutte biologique potentiels. La technique d’empreinte moléculaire Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) a d’abord montré que les communautés bactériennes étaient différentes en fonction des tissus qu’elles colonisaient, i.e. le bois nécrosé ou sain. Soixante-neuf souches bactériennes ont été isolées par méthode pasteurienne, et les 19 souches les plus abondantes ont fait la suite de l’étude. L’identification moléculaire de ces souches par séquençage de l’ARNr 16S et du gène rpoB a montré l’existence de 4 genres colonisant les ceps de vignes : Bacillus, Curtobacterium, Pantoea et Pseudomonas. Ces bactéries ont été également caractérisées au niveau biochimique, métabolique et génétique. Des tests de sélection in vitro contre les trois pathogènes fongiques ont été effectués, suite auxquels, une souche B6 de B. subtilis a été sélectionnée pour des essais de protection in planta en serre. Par la suite, une étude combinant deux bactéries antagonistes isolées de bois de vigne tunisien, i.e. B. subtilis B6, et français, i.e. Pantoea agglomerans S5, a été réalisée pour lutter contre 2 agents pathogènes, Phaeomoniella chlamydospora (isolé des vignobles français) et N. parvum (isolé des vignobles tunisiens), impliqués dans les MDBs. Deux cépages, un fréquent en Tunisie, le Muscat d’Italie, et l’autre en France, le Cabernet Sauvignon, ont été utilisés. En effet, suivant l’agent pathogène et le cépage utilisés, les résultats de protection obtenus étaient différents. Les meilleurs résultats de protection ont été obtenus en combinant les bactéries et en les appliquant sur Muscat d’Italie contre les 2 champignons pathogènes. La spécificité et l’efficacité de la protection biologique a ici été démontrée
Grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) such as esca are of major concern for viticulture worldwide. In Tunisia, knowledge about the symptoms of this disease and the microflora associated with, is still incomplete despite their ability to cause considerable damage to vineyards. In France, around 13% of whole vineyard is unproductive because of GTDs, and no effective treatment currently exists. In that context, the objectives of the present PhD study were: (i) to characterize the fungal microflora inhabiting the wood tissues of Tunisian esca-foliar symptomatic vines in order to identify the pathogens responsible for wood decay. (ii) To investigate the bacterial microflora colonizing the wood tissues of Tunisian grapevines cv. Muscat d’Italie in order to find a suitable Biological Control Agent (BCA) that can be applied to vineyards. First, in order to better characterize the microflora colonizing the wood tissues of vine, samples were collected from 10 vineyards in the north of Tunisia. Fungal isolates were obtained from trunk of grapevines showing decline, small and distorted leaves and chloroses. To identify the isolated fungal species, sequencing of the Internal Transcribed Spacer region of the rDNA was performed (ITS1 and ITS4 primers). Three pathogens, i.e. Lasidiodiplodia pseudotheobromae, Neofusicoccum parvum and Schizophyllum commune, described in the literature as involved in GTDs were isolated for the first time in Tunisia. Their pathogenicity was confirmed in planta. Moreover, the coinoculation of these 3 fungi in planta, showed that they displayed a competitive inhibition effect on each other. In another study, two others pathogens involved in GTDs, i.e. Phomopsis viticola and Diploidia seriata were also isolated from the same region. This PhD also aimed at identifying the bacterial microflora inhabiting the wood tissues of escafoliar symptomatic vines, i.e. necrotic and non-necrotic wood, using microbiological and molecular approaches. Complex bacterial communities, as shown by Single-Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) analyses, colonize both types of wood tissues. After isolation, the 19 most abundant cultivable strains were sequenced (16S rRNA and rpoB genes) and identified as belonging to four genera: Bacillus, Pantoea, Pseudomonas and Curtobacterium. They were then screened for their in vitro antagonistic traits against the three pathogenic fungi L. pseudotheobromae, N. parvum and S. commune. Based on the results obtained, two bacterial strains were selected: B. subtilis (strain B6) and Pantoea agglomerans (strain S5), respectively isolated from Tunisian and French grapevines. They were then tested in planta on young vines of cv Muscat d’Italie and Cabernet Sauvignon against two fungal pathogens involved in GTDs, i.e. N. parvum (isolated from Tunisian wood) and Phaeomoniella chlamydospora (isolated from French vines). Young vines of both cultivars were inoculated by B. subtilis B6, P. agglomerans S5 or the combination of B6+S5, singly or in combination with N. parvum and P. chlamydospora. In terms of plant protection, the most efficient condition to reduce in planta necrosis caused by the fungal pathogens in the two cultivars was the combination of the two bacteria. However, bacterial treatments were significantly more efficient to reduce necrosis caused by N. parvum or P. chlamydospora in Muscat d’Italie than in Cabernet Sauvignon