LIE DETECTORS BLOG & NEWS: NADAC GROUP

MRI’s lie-detecting tool?

WASHINGTON - Add MRI’s to the list of methods that researchers say can detect when a person is lying. A study in Washington, DC on 10 people concluded that the use of functional magnetic Resonance imaging, or fMRI, illustrates when a person is lying based on brain activity. Researchers had six people fire a toy gun and then lie about it when hooked up to both a conventional polygraph machine and the fMRI. Three witnesses to the event also were tested, saying that the people fired the guns, and one person dropped out of the study. The results? Dr. Scott Faro said that the people who were lying had brain activity in seven areas; the truth tellers showed activity in only four. According to these results, it takes more brain effort to tell a lie than it does to tell the truth. The cost of the fMRI is very expensive, but the article hinted that it could be an effective tool in terrorism and high-profile corporate cases.