The Truth in Your Brain
Brain Scans May Be Used As Lie Detectors By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Picture this: Your boss is threatening to fire you because he thinks you stole company property. He doesn't believe your denials. Your lawyer suggests you deny it one more time — in a brain scanner that will show you're telling the truth.
---
Two entrepreneurial organizations are planning to offer just such services: Cephos Corp. and No Lie MRI Inc. (Gotta love that name.) The services could only be used where the person agrees, so they might better be described as truth certification.
Readers of this blog will not be surprised by these plans. With fMRI, you can infer (at a gross level) what brain modules a person is using for a particular task. You would expect that a person who chooses to maintain a lie will have to activate some extra modules for that job. I have seen research reports identifying brain parts that are activated in support of lying, though I don’t know how reliable this information is for the detection of lying.
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Picture this: Your boss is threatening to fire you because he thinks you stole company property. He doesn't believe your denials. Your lawyer suggests you deny it one more time — in a brain scanner that will show you're telling the truth.
---
Two entrepreneurial organizations are planning to offer just such services: Cephos Corp. and No Lie MRI Inc. (Gotta love that name.) The services could only be used where the person agrees, so they might better be described as truth certification.
Readers of this blog will not be surprised by these plans. With fMRI, you can infer (at a gross level) what brain modules a person is using for a particular task. You would expect that a person who chooses to maintain a lie will have to activate some extra modules for that job. I have seen research reports identifying brain parts that are activated in support of lying, though I don’t know how reliable this information is for the detection of lying.
posted by Selby Evans at 12:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home