Sodium Pentothal
Definition
Sodium thiopental, an ultra-short-acting barbiturate; intravenous infusion at a slow drip lowers cortical inhibition and is the standard agent for narco-analysis.
Related terms
- BEOS
- Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature profiling, developed by Champadi Raman Mukundan and validated 2003 at NIMHANS Bangalore; uses 32-channel EEG to classify probes...
- CQT
- Control Question Test (Reid/Keeler technique): compares physiological response to relevant questions with response to control (probable-lie) questions; the dominant US polygraph format.
- Criminal Profiling
- The inference of an unknown offender's likely characteristics from crime scene behaviour, victimology, and case details. Also called offender profiling, criminal investigative...
- FBI BAU
- Behavioral Analysis Unit at the FBI Academy, Quantico, evolved from the Behavioral Science Unit set up by Howard Teten and Pat Mullany...
- GKT / CIT
- Guilty Knowledge Test, also called Concealed Information Test (Lykken, 1959): tests whether the subject recognises crime-specific details only the perpetrator would know;...
- Modus Operandi
- How the offender commits the crime: the functional behaviour needed to complete it; evolves with experience and feedback.
- Narco-Analysis
- A technique in which a subject is administered a barbiturate or benzodiazepine drug (commonly sodium pentothal or midazolam) to induce a hypnotic...
- Organised vs Disorganised
- The BSU dichotomy proposed by Ressler and Douglas, classifying offenders by scene presentation. Organised scenes show planning; disorganised scenes show chaos. The...
- P300
- Event-related brain potential occurring about 300 ms after a meaningful stimulus; Lawrence Farwell's 'Brain Fingerprinting' uses P300 amplitude to flag concealed recognition...
- Polygraph
- An instrument that simultaneously records multiple physiological channels including blood pressure, respiration rate, galvanic skin response, and sometimes heart rate while the...
- Signature
- Psychologically expressive behaviours that go beyond what's needed to complete the offence: posing the body, ritual acts, taking trophies, leaving messages. Signature...
Explained in
- Criminal Profiling, Polygraphy, Narco-Analysis and Brain MappingSodium thiopental, an ultra-short-acting barbiturate; intravenous infusion at a slow drip lowers cortical inhibition and is the standard agent for narco-analys...