BRAIN ELECTRICAL ACTIVATION PROFILE

(BEAP) TEST

History, Concept, Advantages, Limitations, Legal Admissibility

INTRODUCTION
 The Brain Mapping Test is also known as P-300 test.
 In the test of Brain Mapping the suspect is first interviewed and
interrogated find out whether he is concealing any information.
 The activation of brain for the associated memory is carried out by
presenting list of words to the subjects.
 There are three types of words used in the list used for Brain Mapping
Test:
a. Part I – Consists of neutral words, which have no direct
relationship with the case.
b. Part II – Consists of probe words directly related to the case and
suspects to elicit concealed information, which all suspects have
had opportunity to come to know during the course of events
related to the case.
c. Part III - Consists of target, which are not part of the first two
parts. The words in this part are based on confidential findings
which suspect does not know.
MEANING
 It is a process of detecting whether an individual is familiar with certain
information by way of measuring activity in the brain that is triggered
by exposure to selected stimuli.

TECHNIQUE USED
 The test contains examining and measuring ‘event related potentials’
i.e. ERP, electrical wave forms emitted by the brain after it has
absorbed an external event.
 It is also known as “P300 Waves Test”
 An ERP measurement is the recognition of specific patterns of
electrical brain activity in a subject that are indicative of certain
cognitive mental activities that occur when a person is exposed to a
stimulus in the form of an image or a concept expressed in words.
 The measurement of a cognitive brain activity allows the examiner to
ascertain whether the subject recognized stimuli to which he/she was
exposed.

FUNCTIONING OF THE BRAIN

 By the late 19th Century it had been established that the brain
functioned by emitting electrical impulses and the technology to

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 measure them was developed in the form of electroencephalograph
(EEG) which is now commonly used in the medical field.
 Brain wave patterns observed through EEG scan are fairly crude and
may reflect a variety of unrelated brain activity functions. It was only
with the development of computers that it became possible to sort out
specific wave components on an EEF and identify the correlation
between the waves and specific stimuli.
 The P300 wave is one such component that was discovered in 1965.
 It is a specific event related brain potential (ERP) which is triggered
when information relating to a specific event is recognized by the brain
as being significant or surprising.

PROCEDURE
 The Brain mapping test is conducted by attaching electrodes the scalp
of the subject, which measure the emission said wave components.
 The test needs to be conducted in insulated and air-conditioned
environment in order to prevent distortions arising out of weather
conditions.
 The test requires effective collaboration between the investigators and
the examiners.
 The test conducted in BEAP is called “P300 waves test.”

Probes
 The stimuli which designed while conducting the BEAP test is called
probe.
 Ascertaining the subject’s similarity with probes can help in detecting
deception or to gather useful information.
 The test subject is exposed to auditory or visual stimuli (words, sounds,
pictures, videos) that are relevant to the facts being investigated
alongside other irrelevant words and pictures.
 Such stimuli can be broadly classified into “material probes” and
“neutral probes”.
 The underlying theory is that in case of guilty suspects, the exposure
to the material probes will lead to emission of P300 wave components
which will be duly recorded by the instruments.
 By examining the records of these wave components, the examiner
can make inferences about the individual’s familiarity with the
information related to the crime.

LEGAL HURDLES
 Invasion into subject’s mental privacy.
 Harms that may arise from inferences made about the subject’s
truthfulness or familiarity with the facts of a crime.

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LIMITATIONS
 An important objection is centred on the inherent difficulty of designing
the appropriate “probes” for the test.
 Even if the “probes” are prepared by an examiner who is thoroughly
familiar with all aspects of the facts being investigated, there is always
a chance that a subject may have had prior exposure to the material
probes.
 In cases of amnesia or memory hardening on the part of the subject,
the tests could be blatantly misleading.