Brain Scan Shows Differences in Truth, Lying

[chookie]

"Brain scans show that the brains of people who are lying look very different from those of people who are telling the truth, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
-snip-
Using fMRI as a lie detector is expensive, but it may be worthwhile in some cases -- such as trying to question a terrorism suspect, or in a high-profile corporate crime case, Faro said.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041129/sc_nm/science_lying_dc

They better build'em tough if they hook president pinhead up to one, or it will be smoking....

Anyone remember the popular fad in "detecting deception" during the, uh, Clinton adminstration? All those guys writing books about how to spot a liar. who would use Clinton as a case study? There was even a tv show on Court TV, with an ex-FBI guy showing how to spot deception.

Gee, you'd think if these guys weren't politically motivated, they'd be having another bonanza writing best-sellers about how to spot liars, using George and Condi as case studies. Maybe a stress analysis of Powell's voice during his UN testimony?

But obviously, it is not "politically correct" to forensically examine the Bush adminstration.

[eleonora]

1. BUSH is GOD! We don't question GOD!

:silly:

[tk2kewl]

2. this technology

should be made to work with television cameras and employed during political debates.

[eleonora]

3. LOL. I would SO watch.

We can always dream!

[heidler1]

4. The end of political speaches on TV would start the next day.

Which would be fine with me. I hope they can make it work with preachers and news commontators.

[tk2kewl]

8. ok then how about a handheld version

maybe they could put it in a cell phone

[rodeodance]

6. that will never happen!! as it is tooo dangerous--the scanner would

blow up!!!

[UpInArms]

5. and when you examine the magnetic image in the brain of a liar

you will see:

[Dem2theMax]

9. LMAO!

Post of the day, week, month, year maybe? :bounce: :bounce:

[Jeanette in FL]

14. I agree

That is one of the funniest images I have seen in a long time. Excellent.

[cally]

7. I'm starting to raise funds to pay to hook up Condi

Ashcroft and Cheney to one of those. ;-) I can dream, can't I?

[Dem2theMax]

10. Add * to that lineup and I'm in for $$$.

:evilgrin:

[Bruce McAuley]

11. If this is true, it could change our society forever.

If it were legally admissable, and a foolproof system, how many people could we check for lies? At a minimum, everybody in prison.
At the greatest end, a system that tells if politicians(or wife beaters, or murderers, or...) are lying from a distance.
A foolproof way to tell if a person is lying or not could change our world for the better.

Bruce

[daleo]

12. Will this work on chimps?

If so it could be valuable. But seriously, I have my doubts about these magic bullet lie detectors. This isn't the first such claim.

[manic expression]

13. Does anyone else find this

a bit disturbing? Technology of monitoring thought?

[ret5hd]

15. Read this book..."The Truth Machine"...(fiction)

i forget the author.

It was very interesting. The author thought through how a truly effective truth machine would impact society, and many of those ways i wouldn't have thought of. For example, the way negotiations take place. With a reliable truth detector, the seller states the lowest price he would take, the buyer states the highest price he would pay, and the final price is set by splitting the difference.

In the book, an amnesty for all past crimes was set, everyone was required to confess to all past crimes, and slap on the wrist sentences were set. If later it was discovered that a crime had not been confessed, a maximum harsh penalty was given.

A well thought out book, with a twist of intrigue.

[Bruce McAuley]

21. Yup! I couldn't remember the name of the book...

But it was VERY interesting in its' implications, and as you report very well thought out, which is why I wrote it could have major impacts on our society.
It would even tell if chimpy were lying, imagine the possibilities, especially a portable version, which the author did not envision.

Bruce

[instantkarma]

22. James L. Halperin

...

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

16. CRAP STUDY. NO PUBLISHED RESULTS. DISREGARD.

Please bear in mind that this news article is based upon NON-PEER-REVIEWED research results and a press release by the study author and/or his/her institution. This kind of stuff happens all the time when an institution or researcher gets their research CANNED under peer-review, but still want to get positive press for the institution.

PURE SCIENTIFIC PR BULLSHIT.

JB

[Igel]

19. It makes sense, but

it seems unlikely to produce a good lie-detector test. You can't tell what's going on inside a person's brain "beyond a reasonable doubt."

When you lie you're not just accessing memory and using language. You're also involved in creating. These use different pathways. You're also probably also contradicting established behavior patterns. fMRI shows what portions of the brain are more active.

Looks not like a press release, but a combination of paper presentation and news conference afterwards. Probably part of a larger study that'll see print in a year or two, and part of the usual vetting of a study for publication.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

20. Exploratory fMRI studies = 20,000+ t-tests w/o mult. comparison correction

What's unstated (though touched lightly upon in the PR release) is the fact that fMRI studies with less than 15-20 subjects per condition are HORRIBLY UNRELIABLE. What people don't understand is that the majority of these exploratory fMRI studies involve a voxel-wise analysis of the whole brain. This means that the contrasts (typically t-tests) are conducted over 20,000 voxels and multiple-comparison corrections (Bonferroni) with low N make any results HIGHLY SUSPECT (e.g., VERY, VERY HIGH liklihood of Type I errors).

Unfortunately, fMRI provides great brain pictures that the press loves, but without proper control and methodologies - the pictures are just unreliable, often un-replicatible, pseudo-brain science, SHIT.

JB

[truth2power]

17. Good Gawd! Hook up the Chimp!! n/t

[NYC Liberal]

18. It's a shame, though.

This wouldn't work for Bush. Nothing to scan. :(