FORENSIC NEURO-PSYCO-

PHYSILOGICAL
INTERVIEW
FOR
DETECTION OF DECEPTION

P. Paul Ramesh
Central Forensic Science Laboratory,

Directorate of Forensic Science, Sector 36A, Chandigarh

How to catch a liar ?
Drawbacks in Poor detection of deception

♦ Lack of Motivation – Some lies remain undetected

because observers do not want to detect these lies.
♦ Poor Knowledge – People to detect lies, the often fail to
do so, because they often look at the wrong clues to detect a liar.
♦ Good Liars – some people are better liars, it is difficult to
catch that person. They are (I) being original (ii) think quickly (iii)
being eloquent (iv) not experiencing feeling of fear
Ways of catching a liar

♦Psychological
♦Physiological
♦Neurological
Psychological

♦ Interview
♦ Non-Verbal detection
♦ Statement Assessment
♦ Hypnosis
 NERVOUS SYSTEM

CENTRAL NERVOUS AUTONOMIC NERVOUS

SYSTEM SYSTEM

Conscious Actions Instinctive Acts

Reasoning Involuntary Component
Voluntary Motions of
voluntary activity
♦ Reading people Interview
Emotion, Personality, Character, Motivation,
Deception
♦ Communication Modes
Words, Paralanguage, Non-verbal cues,
Artifacts, Use of time, Use of space,
Physiological responses
♦ Warning Signs
Attempts to hide information ,Attempts to
delay, Attempts to distract, Unusual
behavioral cues, Statements that don’t
make sense, Attempts to “sell”,
Motivations to lie
♦ Impression Management
attempts
Ingratiation, Self-promotion, Intimidation,
Exemplification, Supplication
Non-Verbal detection
♦ Voice pitch is higher
♦ increased grooming gestures
♦ frequent swallowing
♦ fast or shallow breathing
♦ increased rate of eye blinks
♦ increased body movements and
postural shifts
♦ pupil dilation
♦ rigid posture
♦ Stiff and rigid posture
♦ Increases in microexpressions
♦ Closed rather than open body
posture
Statement Assessment
♦ False statements have
– Few details
– An unusually large
number of details
♦ True statements have
– Many details
– Unusual details related to
the event
– Superfluous details
unrelated to the event
What is hypnosis
♦ Hypnosis comes from the Greek hypnosis
♦ It means ‘sleep’
♦ But it is not sleep or waking
♦ Normal waking – transition – hypnosis –
transition – normal waking state
Applications of Hypnosis
♦ Stage hypnosis - entertainment
♦ Clinical Hypnosis - clinical
Behavioural hypnosis
Biological hypnosis
♦ Forensic hypnosis - Testimony
Requirement of hypnosis
♦ Freedom from fear
♦ Willingness
♦ Confidence in the hypnotist
♦ Motivation + expectation +imagination =
Hypnosis
Laws of Suggestibility
♦ The law of concentrated attention
(more we concentrate on something, the more likely
something will happen. ex-advertisement in TV)
♦ The law of reversed effect
(harder you try to do something the more likely you will not
able to do it . ex - recall of name)
♦ The law of Dominant effect
( The strong emotion will take the place of weaker one. ex-
smell of burning)
Forensic Hypnosis
♦ Natural hypnosis
♦ Artificial hypnosis
– Narco analysis
– Truth serum technique
– Memory recovering technique
General Procedure
♦ Sodium amytal or sodium pentothal
♦ Inject slowly 5% to 10% solution
♦ Establish the semi narcotic state
♦ Question the subject
♦ Additional amount can be introduce if required.
♦ Under the observation of anesthetist, physician,
Psychologist, and investigation officer
Forensic hypnosis session
♦ Begin audio-video taping of session when subject enters room initial
greeting and meeting for the hypnotist and subject
♦ Pre-session interview
Personal information
Explanation of hypnosis
Memory of incident before hypnosis
♦ Induction (relaxing of the subject)
♦ Memory of incident under hypnosis-Clarification of details
♦ End of hypnosis session – Bring subject out of hypnosis
♦ Review of memory of incident after hypnosis
♦ Debriefing of subject – Answer questions about hypnosis or what subject
experienced
♦ Stop audio/video taping of session when subject leaves.
Physiological
♦ Voice Stress Analyzer
♦ Polygraph
♦ Thermal imaging
Background
♦ All physiological changes are controlled by Autonomic
nervous system – (i) Sympathetic and (ii) Parasympathetic
♦ Most of the living organisms have a tendency of “fight-or-
flight” when they encounter danger.
♦ Due to this, there are some changes that occur in the
physiological level.
♦ When the brain is stressed the human body secretes hormone
adrenaline, or epinephrine.
♦ These hormones stimulate the circulatory system and the
sympathetic nervous system to divert blood from other organs
to muscles.
 REACTION TO
STIMULI
PHYSIOLOGICAL
ACTIVITY
F
F S L
I T I
G A G
H Y H
T T
Background Contd…
♦ The breathing rate and the blood flow rate
increases so that the muscles can get more oxygen.
♦ Deception is the emotion that produces above
physiological changes in humans.
♦ The blood flow in the eyes and ears increases.
♦ Parasympathetic system re-establishes the
chemical balance of the body with-in a few
seconds
 AUTONOMIC NERVOUS
SYSTEM
SYMPATHETIC
SYSTEM Activit
Res y
t Vessel
constriction
Blood vessel Peristalic
dilation absence
Peristalic Action Pupils dilate
Achieve relaxation Heart
Pupils are reactive acceleration
PARASYMPATHETIC
Heart relaxation Hiperventilation
SYSTEM
Peaceful Present
Environment Threat
Voice Stress Analyzer
Definition
– An instrument that measures and registers in a graph
(screen and print) involuntary physiological answers
in a person challenged by psychological stimuli (For
example, a question. )
– It measures the micro – oscillation or microtremor that is
present in the smooth muscle in the voice box that
contracts, causing the vocal chords to emit between
8 - 14 Hertz which is related to the level of
stress that the person experiences.
 PRINCIPLES
– It is more difficult to lie than to say the truth
– Anxiety and guilty knowledge from lying produce
known physiological changes (MICRO-TREMOR)
– The JEOPARDY effect:
• Fear of losing what has been achieved with great
difficulty or, the contrary, negative, punishing
action of the law or community.
Computerized Polygraph
Polygraph
♦ The respiratory system : it will record
“thoracic breathing” and” abdominal
breathing” through convoluted rubber tubes.
♦ Galvanic Skin response : Two small sensors
are connected to the fingers to record the
filling up of sweat glands.
♦ The Cardiac system : it will simultaneously
record blood volume and pulse rate.
 Polygraph Chart

thoracic

abdominal

GSR

Cardiac: blood
vol. & pulse
Question type
♦ Irrelevant Questions: essentially questions which will
give the examiner a truthful answer. Ex:- Is you name
Rohan ?. Ans. should be “Yes”.
♦ Control Questions: Questions on which all subjects will
be potentially untruthful. Ex:- Before this year, did you
ever lie to someone who trusted you ?Ans. should be
“No”.
♦ Relevant Questions: Questions for which the examiner
wants a result. Ex:- Did you steal that car ?(primary
involvement), Did you help any body to steal that car?
( secondary involvement), Do you know who stole that
car?(guilty knowledge), Do you know where that car is
now?(evidence connecting). Ans. should be “No”
Test methods
♦ MGQT(Modified General Question Technique): to
identify level of involvement ( primary
involvement, secondary involvement, Guilty
Knowledge & connecting evidence)and to cover
total crime
♦ ZCT (Zone comparison Technique): It is used to
compare the level of involvements
♦ Ranking : It is used to know other people`s
involvement or importance.
Preparation of Examinee
♦ Examinee should take full rest before the
examination day
♦ Examinee`s consent should be taken before
coming for examination
♦ Normal food should be consumed by the examinee
♦ Examinee should not be under the influence of any
drug or intoxication on examination day
♦ Subject should be physically fit for test
Rights of examinee
♦ Allowed to bring his/her own lawyer
♦ No one allowed to be present in interview
room or test room. They can see from one
side glass
♦ He/she can bring his person to write consent
of the subject, if illiterate.
♦ He/she authorized to know about the
polygraph instrument before the test
Requisition for test
♦ Case forwarded to the Director,CFSL, Chandigarh-not
below the rank of SP/ Magistrate
♦ Brief facts of the case/copy of FIR
♦ Sketch or photographs of SOC
♦ Postmortem/medical report
♦ Copy of the statement of complaint
♦ Copy of panchanama
♦ Mechanical and chemical report, if any
♦ Statement of Witnesses
♦ Statement of suspects
♦ Fitness report in case of a patient
♦ Consent before a magistrate
Thermal Imaging

♦ Facial image acquired

by accurate mid-
infrared camera
♦ Transform the thermal
data to blood flow rate
data
♦ Classifies the subject
deceptive or non-
deceptive.
Neurological
♦ Study of brain electrical activity(brain
finger print)
♦ Brain mapping
HUMAN EXPERIENCE

A REFERENCE TO THE PAST

SENSATION
PERCEPTION
ACTIONS - RESPONSES
EMOTIONS
Millions of arrays of signals pouring in continuously
EXPERIENCE

Participation – Voluntary / Forced

Being there Sharing
Personal Involvement
Personal Knowledge
Emoting directly
Experience
is the primary source of Information

Experiential Knowledge - Experience leads to

Primary Encoding in the Brain.

Conceptual Knowledge - Information that we

receive through hearsay and other sources
(e.g. reading) leaves only Secondary Encoding
in the Brain.
 PRIMARY ENCODING

1. It takes place only during Experience

2. It is a Neuropsychological Event
 Primary Encoding may

be qualified to be called a

BRAIN FINGERPRINT

of the Experience.
A Brain Fingerprinting Procedure uses
Visual priming – pictures relevant to crime
Pictures as stimulus
Words relevant to the crime
Suspects would have come to know of several facts of
an event either through their participation or through
other persons.

Relevant information is also shared by many who may

be connected with the event, or who have merely come
to know of it because it has happened in their proximity.

Neutral words
Randomly selected and not connected to the crime
under investigation.
Brain Fingerprinting may become

a Technique to retrieve

Evidence

Directly from the Suspect’s Brain

Brain Mapping
♦ Glucose activity
increases in brain areas
being used
♦ Activity is detected by
fRMI scan
– Red & yellow = very
active
– Blue = less active
♦ Different tasks produce
different brain activity
CONCLUSION
♦ Detection Lies is not an easy task, that does
not mean that detecting lies is impossible
♦ There is no technique superior or inferior.
All the techniques will be used for detection
of deception accordingly as per expert
ability and suspect’s behavior.