The Amygdala Project

Neural Foundations for the Screening of Hostile Intent

WHITE PAPER
By
Lucia M. Vaina, M.D., Ph.D.
Boston University Biomedical Engineering Department
Thomas G. Robbins, J.D.
Boston University Police Department
Peter J. DiDomenica, J.D.
Boston University Police Department
December 2011

Executive Summary
The greatest obstacle to counterinsurgency operations (COIN) and to homeland security is an
unseen enemy who is able to prepare and execute attacks in our midst. Detection of such enemies
before carrying out or supporting hostile action is a critical task for our military and homeland
security functions. Scientific research shows that individuals experience automatic and preconscious neurological, behavioral, and physiological changes when exposed to threatening
subliminal stimuli, involving both natural and learned threats. In this research proposal we put
forward a novel approach and hypothesize that individuals that have hostile intent against a
particular culture, religion, nation, or ideology and are actively seeking to engage or support
hostile action will experience automatic and pre-conscious neurological, behavioral, and
physiological changes based on exposure to overt and covert (subliminal) symbolic imagery
representative of the opposed culture, religion, nation, or ideology. Once the appropriate
symbolic stimuli are determined for a specific hostile population and specific neurological,
behavioral, and physiological responses are mapped based on exposure to such stimuli, effective
screening systems and technologies may be developed that identify members of such hostile
populations. These new screening systems and technology will minimize human bias and
subjectivity and will provide for scientific validity and legal defensibility.
The proposed research will: (1) determine how subliminal symbolically affective images
and words affect populations for whom those symbols are emotionally meaningful compared to
populations that do not have any attachment to these images or words. The relationship between
physiological responses and sub-cortical and cortical brain activity will be explored first by
functional brain imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and
Magnetoencephalograpgy (MEG), in combination with heart rate determined by EKG acquired
concomitantly with imaging, and by correlation of skin conductance measures and the functional
brain imaging measures ; and (2) investigate the interactions of various sub-cortical and cortical
brain systems resulting from the processing of subliminal imagery including decision making,
attention and working memory.
The functional imaging investigations (fMRI and MEG) will pinpoint the brain areas
responding subconsciously and those involved in conscious processing. Even more importantly,
and, to our knowledge, for the first time, our studies, using cutting edge quantitative methods and
technologies, will elucidate the spatial and temporal aspects of the brain networks involved in
this processing. This is critically important to understand because while most of the previous
work focuses solely on the amygdala as the center of the emotional brain, it is unlikely that
amygdala alone will explain how all aspects of emotion work. Our belief is that the theater of the
brains emotional responses is extraordinarily complex, and identifying the players (specific
brain areas) and when and how they interact is necessary for understanding how individuals
respond to subliminal symbolically affective images and how the limbic hot route to the brain
and the cortical, cold route, interact and elicit response.
This proposal represents a systematic evaluation of population groups that have strong
emotional responses to specific symbolic imagery. The information we will gain from this
research will guide future efforts to create effective screening methods for identifying
subconscious responses that can indicate whether an individual is a member of a specific subpopulation.
2

Objectives
Every day our soldiers and marines are passing on the street and meeting at tribal councils the
people planting the bombs and ambushing them the next day. We rely upon the indigenous
population in theaters of operation as translators, guides, informants, support personnel and
contractors yet many of these individuals are undermining the military mission by providing
intelligence and support to the insurgents and by even taking up arms against us. Identity is
everything. Not your name or ethnicity but your core beliefs determine who you are: Who and
what you support and who and what you oppose; who you are willing to kill and who you will
make great sacrifice to protect.
Counterinsurgency operations (COIN) will continue to be the principal mission of our
land forces for at least the next two decades. The single greatest impediment to successful COIN
operations is not staffing, equipment, logistics, funding, or legitimacy, but is the ability to
identify who is the enemy. In the Forward to the U.S. Army Field Manual 3-24
Counterinsurgency, Lieutenant General David H. Petraeus and Lieutenant General James F.
Amos note that leaders must ensure that their Soldiers and Marines are ready to be greeted with
either a handshake or a hand grenade. Arguably the most important aspect of COIN is for the
soldiers and marines on the ground to understand, appreciate, and manipulate the human
terrain knowing what makes the enemy tick. In the Boston Globe on December 17, 2006 it
was reported that, Officials at the Joint IED Defeat Organization [JIEDDO] admit that most of
the billions of dollars they get each year goes to developing high-tech gear to detect or disarm
bombs rather than addressing the root of the problem: finding out where the bombs come from
and who is planting them.1 More than half the deaths to NATO forces in Afghanistan in 2011
were due to roadside bombs.
Beginning in the spring of 2011 the Taliban in Afghanistan began a strategy of
destabilization through the use of suicide bombers who infiltrate secure military areas or urban
areas within the clearly held areas of the Afghan government. In April 2011 an infiltrator posing
as a recruit in the Afghan national army walked into a meeting at a military base in eastern
Afghanistan and blew himself up killing five NATO troops, four Afghan soldiers, and an
interpreter. The following month a Taliban suicide bomber infiltrated a heavily guarded
compound in northern Afghanistan killing an Afghan police commander, the provincial police
chief, two NATO soldiers, and wounding several including a German NATO commander and a
provincial governor. In October 2011 a Taliban car bomb in the Afghan capital Kabul killed 17
including 12 Americans.
The greatest dilemma facing our soldiers and marines is an enemy who walks among
them with impunity. The Amygdala Project is a research project designed to understand the
neural foundations and the associated psychological, behavioral, and physiological changes that
occur when a person - committed to destruction of their enemy based on religious, ideological,
political, nationalistic, or racial/ethnic beliefs is exposed to overt and subliminal symbolic
representations of their enemy. This neurological understanding of the purposeful destructive
behavior against those considered enemies, along with the associated psychological, behavioral,
and physiological changes, will result in the development of scientifically validated and
1

Bender, Bryan, Roadside Bombs Kill Troops at Highest Rate of Iraq War.

objective technologies, such as portable EEG2, and human based skills capable of detecting
individuals with hostile intent. These technologies and human based skills will better prepare our
soldiers and marines to know when to expect a greeting with either a handshake or hand
grenade.
Insurgent forces and militias have mastered the exploitation of basic human emotions,
such as fear, anger, humiliation, and revenge, to recruit and motivate followers and to weaken
the resolve of their enemies. They have taken a militant fundamentalist religious ideology
woven with a selective narrative of world history and current geopolitical events to create an
army of totally committed holy warriors who dont play by the rules of war and will commit the
most atrocious acts in furtherance of their goals. They are most successful against NATO Forces
because we play by the rules and fight fair. It is time we more fully understand and exploit these
basic human emotions to level the playing field. The emotions that are used by the enemy to
motivate their forces may leave telltale neurological, behavioral, and physiological signs that can
be used by NATO Forces to expose the enemy before he acts.
The Amygdala Project has the potential to create a system that screens individuals
seeking access to secure areas by exposing them to a series a catalysts during a screening or
interview process that are designed to evoke responses from the brains primitive emotional
control center known as the limbic system. These responses involve involuntary and universal
neurological, behavioral, and physiological changes that can be scientifically measured and
evaluated to show hostile intent towards a particular individual, group, religion, ethnicity, or
government. Through this process we have the potential to identify those seeking to carry out
destructive acts or aid people with such intent. Furthermore these responses should involve a
particular relationship between the fast, unconscious, limbic responses and the cortical
processing of particular symbolic images or words, and therefore will elicit specific behavioral
responses even in the most self-controlled individuals.

Electroencephalograph: A device that measures electrical activity in the brain evidencing signal transmission
across neurons.

Research Paradigm
The Amygdala Project will exploit the functioning of the brains primitive limbic system that
seeks to ensure survival and reproduction by recognizing and mediating emotions, motivation,
sensations of pain and pleasure, and triggering of hormonal secretions that prepare the body for
fight or flight. The limbic system is the first part of the brain to perceive and react to threats,
done automatically without initial conscious awareness. Virtually every human being exhibits
certain behaviors and responses to threats that are not controllable by the conscious mind and are
universal with respect to race, ethnicity, culture and gender. Moreover, the limbic system reacts
to perceived threats that may not be perceptible to the consciousness such as subliminal images.
In one classic experiment, each adult participant was given a polygraph examination while sitting
in front of a screen. Pictures of spiders and snakes were flashed on the screen, but too fast for
conscious awareness. When asked, each adult said he had seen nothing. Yet an increase in skin
conductance was recorded for each picture in the adults who admitted to an extreme fear of spiders
and snakes. No such increases were recorded in the adults who said they had no fear of these
creatures. This is compelling evidence of the potency of preconscious processing of the primitive
fear system.3

The two principal emotion-response pairs related to the survival instinct are the anger
emotion/fight response and the fear emotion/flight response. Based on these strong, (initially at
least) uncontrollable primal instincts, hate, hostility, aggression, and fear are thoroughly
interrelated and inextricably intertwined. The individual who experiences these emotions will
undergo, through the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenalin, changes to:
mental alertness and awareness (e.g. tunnel vision, auditory exclusion); physiology (e.g.
increased heart rate, vasoconstriction, pupil dilation); demeanor (e.g. arrogance, contempt,
disgust); body movements and control (e.g. hesitation, fidgeting); speech patterns and content
(e.g. sudden stuttering, delayed responses, changes in pronoun use). Many of these changes can
be detected and measured by technological means available to us, which will allow for scientific
validation and for objective and accurate measurement and analysis.
Research has shown that certain natural objects that are inherently dangerous will evoke,
when presented as subliminal visual stimuli, behavioral and sympathetic nervous system
responses.4 This response is thought to be mediated by a circuit of sub-cortical areas including
the amygdala, pulvinar and colliculus, which are involved in the generation of a fight or flight
response to threatening stimuli.5 Amygdala activation due to threatening stimuli has also been
shown to trigger central nervous system (CNS) response and perceptual/affect changes before

Dozier Jr., Rush W., Fear Itself, The Origin and Nature of the Powerful Emotion That Shapes Our Lives and Our
World. New York: St. Martins Griffin, 1998. Citing, Ohman, A., Fear and anxiety as emotional phenomena, in
Lewis, M. and Haviland, J., eds., Handbook of Emotions. New York: Guilford Press, 1993.
4
Ohman, A and Soares, J. 1994. Unconscious anxiety: Phobic responses to masked stimuli. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology. Vol. 103(2), 231-240. Ohman, A. and Mineka, S. 2001. Fears, phobias, and preparedness: Toward an
evolved module of fear and fear learning. Psychological Review, 108(3), 483-522.
5
LeDoux, J. 1996. The Emotional Brain. New York: Simon & Schuster.

conscious awareness via sub-cortical processing of the stimuli.6 Taken together, this research
suggests that subcortical pathways in the brain will trigger responses to threatening stimuli
before conscious awareness that could allow for remote detection, through various sensor
technologies, of persons who are hostile towards another group, nationality, religion, race,
ethnicity, or ideology.
The research to date has focused on two classes of stimuli: (1) those we refer to as
inherently dangerous, or phylogenetic, meaning visual depictions of objects or people that have
tended to be universally recognized through hominid history as threatening such as snakes and
angry faces, and (2) ontogenetic stimuli, which are depictions of objects which have been learned
as threats found in our society, such as guns or other weapons. Our proposed research seeks to
address a third category of stimuli, symbolically affective stimuli, consisting of those objects
that are not inherently dangerous that may be perceived as threatening due to meaning ascribed
through experience or learning such as a national flag. We will determine if symbolic images
evoke the same sub-cortical pathways and responses as stimuli from the onto- and phylogenetic
categories.
The overarching goal of this work is to develop new, unbiased screening tools to detect
potential threats. In developing the Behavior Assessment Screening System (BASS) profiling
system at Boston Logan Airport, Co-PIs Thomas G. Robbins, Chief of the Boston University
Police and a retired Colonel/Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police and Peter J.
DiDomenica, Detective Lieutenant of the Boston University Police and a retired Lieutenant of
the Massachusetts State Police found that exposure to catalysts (e.g., a police officer) were
successful in provoking an emotional reaction among passengers who posed a potential security
concern. This research proposal will build on this work by investigating how subliminal
symbolic stimuli can be used to evoke responses specific to individuals that pose a direct threat.
Since both phylogenetic and ontogenetic stimuli, which have been extensively studied, are likely
to cause reactions across a broad population, understanding the relationship of symbolic stimuli,
which are more likely to produce population-specific responses, is critical to the creation of
successful next generation targeted profiling methods.
This project will focus on two important aspects linked to the potential to use subliminal
symbolic stimuli in a profiling program. First, we will quantitatively compare how behavioral,
neuronal and sympathetic nervous system responses to symbolic images relate to responses to
onto- and phylogenetic stimuli. And second, we will provide a multidimensional characterization
(behavioral, different type of functional brain imaging, and computation of underlying neuronal
substrate and spatial and spatio-temporal networks) of how these responses vary across subject
populations that have different associations with the symbolic images. These questions
concerning the effects of symbolically affective stimuli are of significant interest in determining
the extent of the limbic systems ability to recognize, and be modulated by, emotionally affective
stimuli. We will also investigate the interaction between sub-cortical (limbic) and cortical brain
areas to understand how these stimuli affect cognitive brain function, and determine how and in
what situations cortical involvement modulates behavioral responses.
To test if symbolically affective stimuli produce responses similar to onto- and
phylogenetic stimuli, an appropriate subject population and control group will be determined
along with appropriate symbolically threatening objects counter to the beliefs of the subject
6

Ibid.

population. We will use life-long devout members of the Catholic faith as a test group with
images of both Catholic symbols (e.g., a crucifix) and those that would be deemed negative by
devout Catholics (e.g., a pentagram). Individuals who do not self-identify with any religion, were
not brought up in religious homes and have not formed emotional associations with these images
will serve as a control population. We propose five experiments to measure responses to
symbolic-emotional stimuli by each group to determine the involvement of the limbic system,
and how limbic system (especially the amygdala) modulate the cortical mechanisms of decisionmaking, attention and short-term working memory. Brain activity during these tasks will be
assessed by fMRI, which provides very highly spatial localization, and MEG, which allows
precise temporal characterization of activity on the scale of milliseconds. Using the functional
imaging information (from both fMRI and MEG) we will generate spatial and temporal
connectivity brain networks which characterize better and more specific brain activity than
when one only determines regions of activation in isolation. The results of these studies will
provide important information about how subliminal, symbolic imagery can generate targeted
responses, and which brain processes reflect responses to these systems. As part of this, we will
measure heart rate and heart inter-beat variability via EKG. Independently, we will also measure
skin conductance and thermal imaging of the face to correlate physiological responses to specific
stimulus conditions and when and where the brain responds to such stimuli. The spatiaotemporal
brain networks (obtained from fMRI and MEG) will also elucidate for the first time, how the
brain responds and processes these symbolic stimuli. We expect this will provide a quantitative,
unbiased assessment of an individuals associations to specific symbolic imagery.

Impact
This research proposal aims to answer some of the important questions raised by behavioral
profiling and to provide direction for more effective, efficient, and legally and scientifically
defendable programs.
Understanding how subliminal, symbolically-emotional stimuli evoke behavioral and
sympathetic nervous system responses has a huge importance to national security concerns
because successful detection of unique neurological, behavioral, and physiological changes
associated hostile intent due to exposure to overt and covert stimuli could revolutionize security
screening for homeland security and military security applications. Successful use of symbolic
stimuli to generate remote detection of physiological changes associated with hostile intent will
also remove the subjective aspect of human observation due unconscious bias and variability of
interpretation thus making behavioral profiling more acceptable and defendable on the basis of
legal and scientific validity.
Based on this proposed research, behavior based hostile intent detection programs using
human observation and interview techniques such as the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) SPOT program7 may be enhanced by the use of consistent symbolic stimuli to evoke
scientifically measured physiological changes indicative of hostile intent. Scientific validation
will be provided by showing a correlation of hostility to specific physiological reactions to
symbolic stimuli. The use of consistent stimuli and scientifically measured physiological
changes correlated with brain network dynamics will lessen the impact of observer bias and
subjectivity and provide greater accuracy in uncovering individuals with hostile intent.
Screening operations into critical infrastructure and other secure areas such as forward operating
bases (FOBs) may be enhanced by hidden screening procedures using subliminal imagery and
remote detection of physiological changes. Existing and readily available technology such as
Doppler radar and thermal imaging already is capable of taking remote physiological
measurements of heart rate, respirations, and galvanic skin response.
This research may be expanded to determine the appropriate symbolically affective
stimuli for specific targeted groups involved in hostilities and to determine the specific
neurological signatures associated with targeted groups hostility towards U.S. and aligned
forces. Once these neurological signatures are determined the quantitative methods and
algorithms that we would develop can be mapped onto a portable EEG for use in vetting those
indigenous to the theater of operations to be trusted partners.
For further information contact:
Peter DiDomenica
617-799-0577
pjd@bu.edu

Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques. This program of behavioral profiling is used at every major
airport in the nation.

Appendix
BIOGRAPHIES OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Lucia M. Vaina, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Vaina is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience at Boston University and
Research Professor of Neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine who specializes
in computational visual neuroscience, cross-modal perception, multimodal functional imaging
and sensory-motor neuroplasticity. She directs the Brain and Vision Research Laboratory at
Boston University. Dr. Vaina is on the faculty at the Harvard Medical School Department of
Neurology and the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. She is Co-Director of the
Neurology of Vision Laboratory of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical
School, and Clinical Research Associate at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Dr. Vaina held
the position of Millennium Professor at the University of Bologna, she was honored with the
Rientro dei Cervelli Award at the University of Bologna, Italy, and was elected in 2005 as a
Fellow of the American Institute of Medicine and Biological Sciences. She received a Doctor
Honoris Causa, from the University V. Goldis, in 2004. Dr. Vaina holds a M.D. and Ph.D.
(Visual Neuroscience) form the University of Toulouse and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics
from the University of Sorbonne, Paris. Dr. Vaina authored a cognitive science book, is the
editor four visual and cognitive neuroscience books, and has published extensively peer
reviewed research articles in the fields of neurology, neuroscience and neuroimaging. She is a
charter member of the Perception and Cognition study section of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), and through 1995-2011 she served as a member of several study sections at both National
Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, and in 2010 she was a member of the
Connectome Project review panel of NIH.
Chief Thomas G. Robbins
Chief Robbins joined Boston University in June of 2006 as Chief of Police and Executive
Director of Public Safety after a 27 year career with the Massachusetts State Police. Chief
Robbins has held many positions within the State Police culminating in his being named
Colonel/Superintendent of the State Police by Governor Mitt Romney. Prior to being named the
Superintendent of the State Police, Chief Robbins was appointed Aviation Security Director of
Boston Logan International Airport in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. During his tenure as head of
security he developed many security innovations that were adopted nationwide including the first
in the nation behavior assessment system for police officers to stop and interview persons at the
airport who exhibit suspicious behavior. Under his leadership Logan Airport became known as a
leader in aviation security and recognized as one of the safest airports in the nation. Chief
Robbins has a bachelors degree from Northeastern University, a masters degree from Westfield
State College and a law degree from Suffolk Law School.
Detective Lieutenant Peter J. DiDomenica
Peter DiDomenica is employed by the Boston University Police as a Detective Lieutenant where
he commands the BU Police Detective Division. He served as a Massachusetts State Police
officer for over twenty-two years, retiring as a Lieutenant in August 2010. He is also presently an
attorney having been admitted to the bar for fifteen years. In his last assignment with the State
Police he served as a Lieutenant and Staff Officer in the Office of the Superintendent where he
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was a subject matter expert and trainer on racial profiling. After the 9/11 attacks he served as the
Director of Security Policy at Boston Logan International airport where he developed innovative
anti-terrorism programs including creation of the behavior based screening program adopted by
the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) know as Screening of Passengers by
Observation Techniques or SPOT. He developed the Behavior Assessment Screening System
(BASS) as terrorist interdiction program based on behavior and statement analysis that he has
delivered to over 4,000 police and security officers in over 100 agencies on the federal, state, and
local level in the U.S., Canada, and U.K. He has served as a subject matter expert on behavior
analysis for the U.S. Army, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland
Security, and National Science Foundation. He has been a lecturer on terrorism related issues for
the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, DHS, and the Department of Defense Criminal Investigations Task
Force. He holds a Juris Doctor from Western New England College School of Law.

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