Mind Wars:

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Mind Wars Brain Research and National Defense
Jonathan D. Moreno David and Lyn Silfen
University Professor
Date
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National Research Council, August 13, 2008

• Committee on Military and Intelligence
  Methodology for Emergent Physiological
  andCognitive/Neural Science Research in the Next
  Two Decades
• Client Defense Intelligence Agency

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National Research Council Spring 2009

• Committee on Field Evaluation of Behavioral and
  Cognitive Sciences-Based Methods andTools for
  Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence
• Clients are DIA and the Office of the Department
  of National Intelligence

• Goal of workshop Describe the barriers to field
  validation of analytic and counter-intelligence
  tools.
• Example Portable lie-detector
• Preliminary Credibility Screening System
  (PCASS)

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Henry A. Murray

• Father of personality theory
• Director of Harvard Psychological Clinic
• Explorations in Personality, 1938
• Developed Thematic Apperception Test for the US
  Army during WWII
• First chief psychologist in the OSS
• Assessment of Men, 1948

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Allen Dulles

• Legendary CIA director
• Commissioned Wolf-Hinkle report on brain
  washing, 1953
• Subsequently supported various hallucinogenic and
  innovative human experiments

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Sidney Gottlieb

• CIA spymaster
• Developed toxic items for assassination (Castro,
  Patrice Lumumba)
• Funded hallucinogen experiments
• Architect of MKUltra program

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Frank Olson

• CIA anthrax expert assigned to Fort Detrick
• Given LSD
• Descended to his death from a Manhattan hotel,
  1953

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The Case of Harold Blaur

• NY tennis pro, 42 y.o.
• Admitted to NY State Psychiatric Institute for
  depression, January 1953
• Unconsented mescaline experiment funded by US
  Army Chemical Corps
• Died after overdose
• Covered up, LSD aspect revealed in Ford
  administration, compensation to adult children
  1978

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Henry Beecher

• Icon of human research ethics
• Harvard anesthesiology professor
• Work on LSD supported by CIA
• Reported foreign science contacts to CIA through
  the 1950s

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Harvard and the Unibomber

• Experiment in personality deconstruction of
  Harvard undergrads
• Humiliation technique
• Ted Kaczynski was a subject

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The Professor and the Unibomber
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Kurt Lewin

• Founder of modern social psychology
• Advised OSS on psychological warfare
• Perhaps up to a third of major research
  university faculty were supported by security
  agencies after WWII

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J.B. Rhine

• Distinguished Duke U. parapsychology researcher
• ESP studies
• CIA supported starting in 1952
• Psiops

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U.S. Test of Simulated Non-Lethal Mortar Round,
2002(Image from Project Sunshine)
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The Moscow Theater Tragedy, October 2002

• Chechen terrorists occupy Russian theater during
  play
• Fentanyl pumped into the heating ducts
• Emergency teams not informed of the nature of the
  agent
• 128 die

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Reading Hidden Intentions in the Human Brain
Haynes, J. -D. et al. Current Biology 17,
323-328 (2007)
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Kay, K. N., Naselaris, T., Prenger, R. J.
Gallant, J. L. Nature advanced online publication
doi10.1038/nature067,15 March 2008).

• In the experiment, the brain activity
• of two subjects was monitored while
• they were shown 1,750 different
• pictures. The team then selected 120
• novel images that the subjects hadnt
• seen before, and used the previous
• results to predict their brain
• responses. When the test subjects
• were shown one of the images, the
• team could match the actual brain
• response to their predictions to
• accurately pick out which of the
• pictures they had been shown. With
• one of the participants they were
• correct 72 of the time, and with the
• other 92 of the time on chance
• alone they would have been right only
• 0.8 of the time.

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Non-invasive Brain Imaging

• Uses fMRI (oxygenation) or PET scans (glucose)
• Correlations of neurochemistry with behavior
• NIRS (Near Infrared Spectroscopy) cheaper and
  portable, also records oxygenation but poor
  temporal resolution

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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

• Induces changes in brain activation
• Could be used to alter a persons social behavior
  or attitudes
• Influence brain functions including physical
  movement, visual perception, memory, reaction
  time, speech and mood

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• 3 billion budget
• Developed internet, stealth bomber
• Dedicated to long-range innovation through
  speculative technical possibilities
• Various current neuroscience projects

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Neuroimaging and the Head Web

• Noninvasive brain monitoring devices
• Contract Head Access Laminar Optoelectronic
  Neuroimaging System
• Contract Wireless Near-Infrared Devices for
  Neural Monitoring in Operational Environments
• Security and medical uses

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Neuromics DARPAs Mind-Machine Interface
Programs

• Training honeybees to detect explosives and other
  odors of interest
• The electronic dogs nose to develop electronic
  devices that can sniff out explosives as well as
  dogs.
• Improved battlefield vision technology based on
  fly eyes
• Enhanced Human Performance project to make
  warfighter more endurant, better able to heal
• Continuous Assisted Performance project to
  enable fighters to stay awake and alert 24/7

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AugCog, DARPA, 2002

• will develop the technologies needed to measure
  and track a subjects cognitive state in
  real-time
• enhance operational capability, support reduction
  in the numbers of persons required to perform
  current functions, and improve human performance
  in stressful environments
• E.g., cockpit design a computer-based command
  environment (working memory), an unmanned combat
  vehicle (executive function), a combat vehicle
  (sensory input), and an integrated individual
  combat system (attention).

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Cognitive Threat Warning SystemLukes
Binoculars
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Cyborgs

• At a certain point the neural system integrates
  the information encoded on an implanted chip
• What does this mean for the research
  participants capacity? Has the participants
  identity been altered?

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The Roborat
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No Bull Jose Delgados Stimoceiver, 1958
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Modafinil (Provigil)

• Possible replacement for amphetamines

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The Anti-Conscience Pill

• Beta blockers can be used to treat stress,
  prevent PTSD
• Suppress release of hormones like norephinephrine
  that help encode memory
• Might also reduce guilt feelings

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The trust drug?

• Natural oxytocin production is associated with
  trust behavior
• May be artificially administered in a spray to
  encourage cooperation
• Use in interrogations?

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Scientists Use of Brain EnhancersNature 450,
11571159 2007

• 20 of readers reported using at least one of
  these for non-medical reasons
• Ritalin (62)
• Modafinil (44
• Beta blockers (15)

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Emerging Cognitive Neuroscience and Related
Technologies (National Academies Press, 2008)

• The Big Picture Bridging the Science and
  Technology for the Decision Maker
• Current Cognitive Neuroscience Research and
  Technology Selected Areas of Interest
• Challenges to the Detection of Psychological
  States and Intentions via Neurophysiological
  Activity
• Neuropsychopharmacology
• Functional Neuroimaging
• Emerging Areas of Cognitive Neuroscience and
  Neurotechnologies

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Summary

• The intelligence community (IC) faces the
  challenging task of analyzing extremely large
  amounts of information on cognitive neuroscience
  and neurotechnology, deciding which of that
  information has national security implications,
  and then assigning priorities for decision
  makers. It is also challenged to keep pace with
  rapid scientific advances that can only be
  understood through close and continuing
  collaboration with experts from the scientific
  community, from the corporate world, and from
  academia. The situation will become more complex
  as the volume of information continues to grow.
  The Committee was tasked by the Technology
  Warning Division of the Defense Intelligence
  Agencys (DIAs) Defense Warning Office to
  identify areas of cognitive neuroscience and
  related technologies that will develop over the
  next two decades and that could have military
  applications that might also be of interest to
  the IC.

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Tasks

• Review the current state of today's work in
  neurophysiology and cognitive/ neural science,
  select the manners in which this work could be of
  interest to national security professionals, and
  trends for future warfighting applications that
  may warrant continued analysis and tracking by
  the intelligence community,
• Use the technology warning methodology developed
  in the 2005 National Research Council report
  Avoiding Surprise in an Era of Global Technology
  Advances (NRC, 2005) to assess the health, rate
  of development, and degree of innovation in the
  neurophysiology and cognitive/neural science
  research areas of interest, and
• Amplify the technology warning methodology to
  illustrate the ways in which neurophysiological
  and cognitive/neural research conducted in
  selected countries may affect committee
  assessments.

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Thank you!

• University of Pennsylvania
• Center for Bioethics
• Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
• Department of History and Sociology of Science
• Dana Foundation
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• National Research Council

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