## Quiet Testimony--The Brain Opens the Door to Justice (September 2008)

## Quiet Testimony--The Brain Opens the Door to Justice (September 2008)

In 2008, science was about to enter the field of justice. In Japan, the emphasis on confessions has sometimes led to false convictions. In a country where the "truth" is the word obtained after lengthy interrogations, researchers are using brain-scanning technology to try to decipher the true experiences that lie deep in the recesses of memory. While the technology is expected to prevent false convictions, there are also deep-seated concerns that it could lead to a different kind of violence in the name of science.

In India, this technology was decisive in a murder trial. The female defendant's brain told her that it knew what had happened in the past. The brainwave activity was certified as proof of her "guilt". The brain is a silent organ. But scientists have found testimony there.

But what is the truth that the brain tells us? Is it a solid memory or an induced illusion? Does science help or distort the law? Now that the day has come when electrical signals in the brain will decide a person's fate in court, we are once again being asked about the boundary between "truth" and "evidence. The light is still too weak to regard the light of memory flickering in the back of our brains as a beacon of justice.