The paper presents a scientific approach to interpreting physiological data obtained during the psychophysiological detection of deception procedure. The approach is based on identification of individual form of human physiological response to significant stimulus (i.e. symptom complex).

The author provides a short historical overview of scientific literature about the presence of human physiological ability to respond to a significant stimulus in a certain way due to psychophysiological characteristics of individuals.

It is well known that only significant stimuli can cause pronounced and stable physiological responses from a person during psychophysiological detection of deception examination. However, the recorded physiological activity may be conditioned not only by the significance of the stimulus but also other factors. Therefore, one goal of interpreting the research results is the selection of certain reactions out of the general dynamics of vital physiological background of the human body. The changes of physiological features recorded by the polygraph are conditioned by the stimulus significance but not by other physiological activity of the subject.

The paper contains methods of evaluating the suitability of the functional state of a subject to using the polygraph from the perspective of ergonomics and integrated approach. According to the author during the polygraph testing a psychophysiological experiment should be carried out. Through the performance evaluation it allows to define exactly the functional state of a subject that contributes to detecting his/her physiological responses that describe the significance of presented stimuli (i.e. symptom complex).

For the first time in the scientific literature this paper presents an author’s definition of the symptom complex. Also it gives a detailed description of a symptom complex detection algorithm in the psychophysiological research using the polygraph. The author defines the field of application for the particular individual form of response. The paper is of profound practical and scientific importance for polygraph examiners who work with human resources, assist law enforcement in criminal investigations, conducts internal workplace investigations, perform functions of a forensic expert in court.