Detection of guilty knowledge with event-related potentials.

The N400 component of the event-related potential (ERP) is elicited by words that complete sentence falsely. The utility of the N400 in discriminating subjects who have knowledge of a crime from those who do not was examined in this study. Post hoc analyses indicated that 78% of subjects could be correctly classified as guilty or innocent. With further development, ERPs may become useful auxiliaries to current lie-detection techniques.