November 09, 2016
If you’re looking for proof that you’ve been duped, you might want to look beyond sweaty palms, averted eyes and outward signs of the jitters.
A new study out of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine suggests there’s a more relatable telltale sign that someone is telling a tale than the aforementioned examples that are typically picked up on a polygraph test.
To better detect a liar, the researchers say, peer into the person’s brain with fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imaging.
By using brain scans, the researchers were able to spot a liar with up to 90 percent accuracy, compared to a polygraph test, which produces an accuracy ranging "between chance and 100 percent."
When someone lies, there are areas of the brain linked to decision-making that are activated and light up on an fMRI scan. So you can say that a liar’s tongue may not turn black, and their nose might not grow, but their brain will surely shine with signs of deceit.
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, and it's the first to compare the two modalities in the same group of individuals using a blind study. And while it’s worth noting that neither fMRI nor polygraph experts were perfect, overall, the fMRI was 24 percent more likely to spot the liar.
Read more at Penn Medicine.
